Harry Potter,the Guardian,and the Sorcerer's Stone
by cerberus309
Summary: A rewrite of the First Book, First in a Series. Harry Potter recieves help of an ancient kind throughout his stay at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. FallenxYoko TaranaxArcana HarryxDraco Rated for language.
1. The Boy Who Lived

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Some portions of this fic are directly taken from the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

This Chapter was Revised on 8/21/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter One: The Boy Who Lived**_

Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, and Rubeus Hagrid stood outside of Number Four Privet Drive, Dumbledore holding a small bundle.

McGonagall started when Hagrid suddenly let out a wounded howl.

The watcher smirked.

While the woman comforted Hagrid, or at least got him quiet enough to keep them hidden, Dumbledore stepped over the low wall of the garden, slipping a note into the folds of the blanket before returning to the other two, leaving the boy on the front porch.

After a few minutes, in which the three adults did nothing but stare at the bundle, Hagrid left, stating that he needed to return Sirius' bike.

McGonagall left not long after.

Dumbledore stayed a few moments longer to return the light to the street lamps before he too, was gone, leaving only the watcher and the child.

'**Harry Potter,'**a voice whispered in the watcher's mind.

The watcher smiled.

"**Indeed."** came the reply.

"**After years of searching, we have finally found him. We will keep him as safe as we can…. This one has a hard life ahead of him."**

The voice was quiet a moment. **'You are the boy's guardian, Tarana. But Fallen and Yoko?'**

Tarana smiled dangerously. **"The Malfoy and Zabini guardians can be swayed if the need be."**

The voice spoke quietly in response. **'You will not go to them now?'**

Tarana shook her head slowly. **"No. The time will come, when the guardians rise to power once more. This is a time of witches and wizards. Let them have their fun. This generation…the Guardians will be busy in the future. True, I desire to be with my friends and family, on the same side. More than anything however, I wish to rest,"** She whispered.

'…**. Go to the boy. As you said. We will keep him safe.'**

Tarana walked silently from the shadows of the lawn across the street from the Dursley home, revealing not a human body, but the sleek, powerful body of a black panther.

She silently looked down at the sleeping child, who was yet unaware of everything that would come to him in life.

Unaware of his importance to two different worlds.

Unaware, that he was the Boy Who Lived.

Tarana brushed her muzzle against the boy's cheek and he stirred, opening sleepy emerald eyes.

'_**Rest young one. I will protect you,'**_ she projected, smiling as Harry's eyes slid closed.

Lying down, she curled her body around the infant, keeping him warm in the now-November breeze and laying her head protectively over Harry, she fell into a light slumber, waking only when sounds of movement came from the house.

She was gone when Petunia Dursley woke Harry with her scream.


	2. The Guardian

This Chapter was Revised 8/21/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Two: The Guardian**_

Harry Potter stumbled from the car, coming face to face with a black panther perched on the lawn.

"I've seen you before." he whispered.

The panther lowered its head, looking up at him.

"But I don't know where."

The panther narrowed its eyes. It stood and began to walk away.

"Wait! Who are you?!" he yelled, but the panther kept walking.

'_**You will know soon enough,'**_ was the last thing he heard before a pounding woke him from the dream.

Only this time, he could remember it. He'd had the same dream since he was five, that much he could remember, but he had never remembered the details of the dream itself.

Petunia banged on the door once more, and for the moment, he gave up trying to figure out what the dream meant.

---

Outside, Tarana's eyes slid open.

'**You're playing with fire, Tarana,'** A voice whispered in her mind.

Tarana chuckled. **"It is what I'm known for, Alex,"** she answered, barely above a whisper.

Tarana stretched slightly, preparing for another day of watching the boy.

Alex was the panther's mind. Annoying as it was, it had one more than one occasion, kept Tarana alive, the majority of its instincts far keener than Tarana's. It was never in control of their joint body, it was just always there.

Tarana's ear twitched as loud sounds floated in from the house.

Dudley's fake sobbing and Petunia's awful cooing. With a soft, disgusted snarl, she turned her head to listen better.

"I…don't….want…him t-t-to come!" came the boy's yelling. "He always sp-spoils everything."

Tarana was confused and hungry. Neither of which was helping her patience with the spoiled eleven year old in the kitchen above her.

As a car pulled up and two figures she, sadly, easily recognized as one of the Dursley boy's friends and a parent, made her shrink further towards the ground and out of sight as they rang the doorbell.

The upside was the annoying 'crying' stopped soon after.

---

Half an hour later, she was following Harry and the Dursley's on their way to the zoo. She and Alex snorted when Vernon Dursley almost crashed the car.

'**Wonder what the boy said this time,'** Alex said thoughtfully.

Tarana grinned.

For hours, she followed them.

Around lunch, she went hunting around the zoo and killed a deer in the infirmary, Alex's senses assuring her it would die soon anyways. The carcass was engulfed in black and green flames, which she put out before leaving in search of her charge.

---

She found him.

Talking to a snake.

"**It seems it was awakened sooner than we thought. Dumbledore will be interfering soon," **she whispered.

Alex didn't answer.

Tarana growled quietly when Dudley pushed Harry to the ground. Her eyes flashed red and Dudley suddenly found himself inside the tank.

Her bright blue eyes sought out Harry, who was watching the snake slither away.

"**The time is coming,"** she whispered, disappearing from the Reptile House as Vernon rounded on Harry, however, before a word could pass the irate man's lips, Tarana slipped in a threat.

'_**Touch him and die,'**_ she projected with images to match, as she passed the gates as nothing more than a shadow.

---

Later that night, Tarana returned to the Dursleys. She could hear them all settling in for the night.

All except for the closest one.

Harry was awake.

Silently, she walked to the front door, her tail swishing gently as her eyes flashed red and the door opened. Walking as silently as only a predator can, she entered the kitchen.

In the fridge, she found the leftovers from the Dursleys' dinner. Sitting she watched as the food loaded itself onto a plate. As the refrigerator door closed once more, her eyes flickered black and the same type of flames that had consumed the dead deer hours before, now surrounded the plate of food, warming it. Tail still swaying in idle contentment, Tarana led the floating plate of food to the cupboard door, where it slid effortlessly under the gap with a careful prod of Tarana's magic, the flames going out.

Satisfied, Tarana left the house.

---

Harry jolted upright when the scrapping of something on wood met his ears. Looking down, he saw a steaming plate of food. Without bothering to wonder who brought it, as he had never found out before, he just took a hidden set of pilfered silverware from under his pillow and began to eat.

'_**Stay safe young one, and sweetest of dreams. We're watching out for you.'**_

Harry smiled.

The voice had been with him as long as he could remember. For some reason it never scared him. It comforted him and cared for him the way none of the Dursleys ever had. When asked who she was, the voice always replied with 'for now, I am only the Guardian.'

In ten years, he had never seen his mysterious guardian, but a blurry picture of black and blue always accompanied the reply.

---

Tarana smiled.

In the ten years that she'd watched the boy, he had become more than just a possible savior to her race, he had become something closer.

Like a younger sibling or a son. As she fell slowly into a light sleep, she wished her charge good night, enjoying the content silence she received in reply.


	3. The Letters

This Chapter was Revised 8/21/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Three: The Letters**_

Harry walked down the street, keeping an eye out for Dudley's gang, although he knew that they wouldn't physically touch him. The gang as a whole hadn't done so in years. The only one who still did was Dudley when the rest of his gang wasn't around, but as a whole they still taunted him and today, he didn't want to deal with it.

His thoughts traveled to his Guardian.

He sat in the park for hours, unaware of the blue eyes that watched his movements as he swung lazily on the swing set.

---

Tarana was getting anxious. The boy's eleventh birthday was approaching and she was sure that Dumbledore would contact the Boy Who Lived soon.

Aware of the implications, she began to come up with a plan of sorts.

The time for Harry to meet her was approaching.

---

Later that month, Harry stood in the hallway, staring at a letter with his name on it.

"Hurry up, boy!" Vernon shouted. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?"

While Vernon chuckled at his own joke, Harry began to walk back to the kitchen, staring at the letter. Handing the bill and postcard to his uncle, he sat down and slowly began to open the letter. He ignored the conversation going on around him, until Dudley yelled something that made Harry's heart stop.

"Dad, Harry's got something!"

Vernon jerked the letter from the young boy, ignoring his groping hands. After reading it, he threw both Dudley and Harry from the kitchen.

---

Harry stayed in his cupboard all day, too angry to face the Dursleys.

To make things worse, he hadn't heard from his Guardian in weeks. It worried him. What would he do if something had happened to her?

Harry paused in his musings when Vernon stepped through the cupboard doorway with some difficulty.

"Where's my letter?" he asked, sitting up quickly. "Who's writing to me?"

"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake." Vernon answered shortly. "I've burned it."

"It wasn't a mistake," Harry spat angrily, "it had my cupboard on it and-"

"SILENCE!" Vernon shouted, his harsh breathing was the only sound for several long seconds. "Grab your things and get up. You're moving to Dudley's second bedroom," he ordered, squeezing his bulky body out before Harry could even draw the breath to ask why.

The next couple of days passed and Harry 'received' forty-one letters in the most unconventional ways. Stuck in the egg cartons, through the slots between the door and the door jams….

Dudley broke down once and asked his cousin just who it was that wanted to talk to him so badly, Harry had no friends to speak of.

Harry knew of at least one person, but he couldn't imagine his Guardian going through such lengths to speak with him, when she could speak to him through his mind.

Shrugging, he put the letters out of his mind for the moment, he knew this stalemate between the mystery writer and his uncle was bound to break soon.

---

And break it did.

As the Dursleys and Harry sat around the kitchen table one morning, Vernon was happily reminding everyone that there was no post on Sundays, when letters began to pour down the chimney into the kitchen.

Vernon threw Harry out of the room, yelling at the top of his lungs while his wife and son followed them, screaming.

"I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"

With half of his mustache missing, no one dared to argue for fear of laughing at him(least that was Harry's reason).

---

Ten minutes later, they had made it past the doors and into the car.

Everything was quiet except for Dudley's sniffling, as his father had hit him around the head because he'd held them up, trying to fit his TV, VCR, and computer into his duffel bag.

Harry stared out the window, not really seeing anything.

His mind was back on his Guardian. What would happen if she returned and he wasn't home? Would she be worried?

Two days later, his worry and curiosity had grown.

As they stopped in the middle of a plowed field, he remembered that morning, where a hundred of the letters addressed to Harry had been delivered. Vernon had once more taken them, but at the time, Harry hadn't cared, too preoccupied with his thoughts of his Guardian.

Now, they were parked at the coast, staring at a shack that definitely had to have seen much better days.

"A storm forecast for tonight!" Vernon said cheerfully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"

Harry fought the urge to gag at the old man that walked towards them, a slightly wicked look in his eyes that matched the grin he sported.

Harry drowned out the rest of what Vernon said until he snapped at him to hurry up.

---

As they stumbled up the rocks, Harry was still oblivious of the icy blue eyes that watched him stumble after his family.

---

Harry ate the bag of chips without a word and watched as Vernon attempted to light a fire with the garbage, but nothing happened.

"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully, a pointed look at Harry.

Harry ignored him.

As the night fell, the storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows.

Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the other room and set up a bed for Dudley on the couch. She and Vernon shot Harry a look before leaving to go to bed.

Thus, Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.

The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on and Harry couldn't sleep.

He was cold and worried, not to mention hungry and uncomfortable. Laying on the dirty ground, he stared at Dudley's watch, which told him that in ten minutes time, he'd be eleven years old.

As he lazily counted down the last ten seconds to his birthday, his thoughts went back to his Guardian.

She always brought him something, whether it be material, or a cake from god knows where.

**BOOM.**

The shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door in horror.

Someone was outside, knocking to come in.


	4. Meeting the Guardian and theKeeperofKeys

This Chapter was Revised 8/21/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Four: Meeting the Guardian and the Keeper of the Keys**_

**BOOM.**

They knocked again, causing Dudley to jerk awake, shouting something stupid as he sat up.

There was a crash behind them, as Vernon skidded into the room, a rifle in his hands.

"Who's there?!" the man yelled. "I warn you-I'm armed!"

There was a pause, the person on the other side of the door debating, and than two things happened: One, the door collapsed inwards, but that was temporarily ignored as a shadow broke from the walls, lunging for Vernon. The terrified man had no time to aim, but managed to fire off two shots, neither of which hit their target, before the rifle was jerked from his hands and the shadow, now identified as a black panther, dropped the weapon at Harry's feet, before standing protectively between the boy and the door, head lowered and sharp ears pointed towards the threat, in the back of his mind, Harry found it odd that it didn't bare its fangs at the intruder, but the thought never made it to the front of his mind as it was than that, Harry turned to the door, and almost swallowed his tongue as he was swallowing a gasp of shock.

A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard. You could just make out his eyes glinting under the mess.

'_**Harry.'**_ the familiar voice whispered into is mind.

Harry stood as the giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so his head just brushed the ceiling.

Bending down, he picked up the door, fitting it easily back into its frame.

The giant turned opening his mouth to say something, but all thought momentarily left him as he spotted the panther crouched and glaring before Harry Potter.

---

Tarana kept eye contact, projecting images and thoughts of protecting Harry, even against a possible ally into his mind.

Shaking his head, the giant strode to the couch, where Dudley was looking back and forth between the panther and giant, obviously very close to pissing his pants, unsure of who he should be more terrified of.

"Budge up, yeh great lump." the giant ordered.

Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching terrified behind a gapping Vernon Dursley.

"An' here's Harry!" the giant said, looking at Harry.

Harry looked up.

"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby." said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mom's eyes."

Vernon made a strange rasping noise. "I demand that you leave at once, sir." he said. "You are breaking and entering!"

The panther turned its head minutely and snarled, and he fell silent.

"Anyway-Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys once more. "A very happy birthday to yeh. Got sommat fer yeh here-I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste alright."

Tarana watched warily as the giant pulled a slightly squashed box from his overcoat.

Harry walked forward and took it, Tarana tensed, ready to spring. Inside was a large, sticky, chocolate cake with _Happy Birthday Harry_ written on it in green icing.

Harry looked up at the stranger.

The panther smirked when instead of 'thank you' her charge said, "Who are you?"

The giant chuckled. "True, I haven't introduced myself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." He extended a hand to shake Harry's but the panther's soft snarl caused Hagrid withdraw his hand before Harry could gather up the thought to grasp it. "And you are?" he asked the feline.

---

Harry was just thinking how odd, talking to a big cat seemed when the panther turned to Harry, sitting back and tilting its head in a knowing manner before it _smirked_.

"**My name to you is the Guardian. But half of my true name is Tarana, Guardian to the Potter Family and most recently, the Boy Who Lived."**

Harry and the Dursleys blinked.

"You…can talk?" Harry said quietly.

Tarana smiled.

"**I've been talking to you for ten years Harry."**

Harry blinked again.

Hagrid cleared his throat. "What about some tea, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together.

Tarana nudged Harry's knees and pushed him onto the couch, before hopping up onto it between Hagrid and Harry, pressing very close to her charge's side.

Hagrid's eyes fell on the empty grate.

He and Tarana both snorted.

Hagrid stood, but a soft whisper stopped him.

"**I'll do it. You've been expelled."** Tarana said, almost too quietly for Harry to hear.

Harry looked down at her and Hagrid paused, before nodding and sitting back down.

Tarana fixed her gaze on the grate, with her sharp blue eyes flashing solid black, green and black flames leaped up, the bags of potato chips and banana peels didn't last long.

Harry felt her sink further into the couch and while watching Hagrid pull a copper kettle, package of sausages, poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of what looked to be liquor from his pockets and began to idly scratch the panther's ears, her soft purring comforting his nerves.

Soon, the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausages. No one said a thing while Hagrid worked, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Tarana spotted the spoiled Dursley boy begin to fidget.

Apparently Vernon noticed as well, because he sharply said, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."

Hagrid chuckled darkly.

"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."

Tarana let out a bark of laughter. And Harry hid a grin, still semi-shy around his newly revealed Guardian and the giant.

Said giant passed the sausages to Harry who than gave two to Tarana on a whim, watching as she happily ate them from his hand.

Biting into one and finding that he was so hungry he felt as if he'd never tasted anything so good. Finally, as neither Hagrid nor Tarana seemed about to explain anything, Harry told them, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."

The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

Out of the corner of her eye, Tarana noticed that Petunia winced at his despicable table manners and hooded her eyes to hide her amusement at the human's discomfort.

"Call me Hagrid." he said. "Everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm the Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts-yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."

Tarana winced minutely.

"Er-no." said Harry.

Hagrid looked shocked.

"Sorry." Harry said quickly.

"_Sorry_." barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows, or tried to anyways. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"

"All what?" asked Harry, causing Tarana to lay her ears back against her skull.

"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait just one second!" The giant had leapt to his feet. In his anger, it seemed to all but Tarana that he seemed to fill the whole hut.

The Dursleys, to Tarana's pleasure, which she conveyed to Harry if no one else, but the near silent purring that vibrated up his leg, were cowering against the wall, as far from Hagrid as they could possibly get.

"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy- this boy! - knows nothing abou'-about ANYTHING?"

Tarana looked up at Harry as he spoke, seemingly to defend his 'family'. "I know _some_ things," he said. "I can, you know, do math, and stuff."

Tarana shook her head.

"**About **_**our**_** worlds, he means. Your world, my world, your parents' worlds."** she said, before Hagrid could blow his top further.

Harry looked curiously at her. "What worlds?"

Hagrid's angry look grew darker.

"DURSLEY!" he boomed.

Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like 'mimblewimble', had Tarana in near hysterics, burying her muzzle under her paws as if it would muffle the noise.

Hagrid stared wildly at Harry. "But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."

"What? My-my mom and dad weren't famous," he looked at Tarana. "Were they?"

"Yeh don' know…yeh don' know…" Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare. "Yeh don' know what yeh _are_? He said finally.

Vernon found his voice. "Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"

Tarana turned black eyes on the man. **"Fuck off mortal."** she hissed. **"You never told him. Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left for him. I was there. I saw the old man leave it, fool. And you've kept it from him all these years."**

"Kept what from me?" asked Harry eagerly, quickly growing exasperated at how upset Tarana and Hagrid were getting over something they, appeared, to refuse to tell him about.

"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Vernon as Petunia gave a gasp of horror.

"Ah, go boil yer heads, the both of yeh," Hagrid said.

"**Harry you're a wizard."** Tarana and Hagrid said at the same time.

There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.

"I'm a _what_?" gasped Harry.

"A wizard, o' course." Hagrid said, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower. "an' a thumpin' good 'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon its abou' time yeh read yer letter."

Harry stretched out his hand, at last, to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to: Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class; Grand Sorc.; Chf. Warlock; Supreme Mugwump; International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1. We await you're owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

Tarana's head rang with the amount of questions exploding around her charge's head. A few minutes later, he chose a question, a lesser question, in her opinion.

"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a carthorse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat, he pulled an owl-a real, live, rather ruffled looking owl-a long quill, and roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth, he scribbled a note that Harry read upside down:

_Dear Professor Dumbledore,_

_Given Harry his letter._

_Taking him to buy his things tomorrow._

_Weather's horrible. Hope you're well._

_Hagrid_

Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped in its beak. Standing, he went to the door and threw the owl out into the storm. As he came back, he was ignorant of the look of longing in Tarana's eyes when the door closed behind the owl.

Looking back up, she snorted quietly when she noticed that Harry had his mouth open. Nudging the hand still ghosting through her fur, he closed it quickly.

"He's not going." Vernon said, stepping into the firelight.

Hagrid grunted. "I'd like ter see a great muggle like you stop him." he said.

"A what?" Harry asked.

"**A muggle,"** Tarana answered, **"it's what wizards call non magic folk like your relatives. Unfortunately, you appear to have grown up with the worst of both kinds…."**

"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish." Vernon said viciously. "Swore we'd stomp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"

Harry growled slightly, suddenly angry with his aunt and uncle. "You _knew_?" He yelled. "You knew I'm a-a wizard?"

"Knew!" shrieked Petunia suddenly, coming to life for the first time since the two strangers' arrival. "_Knew_! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-that _school_-and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frogspawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was-a freak!"

Here it seemed Tarana'd had enough of dealing with the mortals. She twisted, lunging over the couch at the woman before anyone could move, pinning her to the ground with lethal fangs inches from the terrified woman's face. In response to her anger, the flames in the fireplace grew, and she projected rather than spoke her words.

'_**Freak?! There is no greater freak than what you've become, mortal. In the 1300 years that I've served the Potter Family, I have never seen a better witch than Lillian Evans. After everything that life put her through, **_**you **_**call **_**her **_**a freak? You deserve nothing short of dismemberment. I want to tear out your eyes and-'**_

Harry shook his head to clear it of the shock. "Tarana!" he yelled in horror.

The flames had curled along the edge of the fireplace to lick the wood walls of the shack. Tarana calmed slightly, if only enough to let Petunia up, and returning to Harry's side, where he wrapped his arms around her neck to keep her near him and away from his relatives.

But the attack on his wife had brought back Vernon's courage, and he continued Petunia's rant for her.

"She met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course we knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as-as-_abnormal_-and then, they went and got themselves blown up and we got landed with you!"

Harry had gone very pale now.

As soon as Harry regained his voice for the second time, he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"

"CAR CRASH!" Hagrid roared.

Harry struggled to continue restraining Tarana, who although she had known about the story the Dursley's had cooked up to explain Harry's placement with them, she had never been as angry with them as she was now.

"How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"

"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently, more than a little eager to calm down the struggling black panther in his arms.

Tarana stilled immediately, wilting. **"Because…I was foolish."** she whispered.

"I never expected this," Hagrid said, in a low worried tone. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh-but someone's gotta-yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts no knowin'."

He threw a dark look at the Dursleys.

"Well, its best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh-mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it…"

He sat down, stared into the fire. Harry and Tarana sat on the floor. Finally, Tarana began,

"**It begins, I guess to you magic users, with a person called…"** she watched with some amusement as Hagrid flinched before she even said it. **"Voldemort."** Hagrid shuddered, and Harry noticed.

"What?"

"**The name isn't said much in that world."** Tarana whispered.

"Why not?"

"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. He went…bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than Worse…"

"**Get on with it."** Tarana snapped, her temper fraying.

"This-this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started looking fer followers. Got 'em too-some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Don't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches…terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course some stood up to him-an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway."-

"**Now, your mother and father were two of the greatest witch and wizard I've ever known, and I have met plenty. Head boy and girl at school in their day. Most are curious as to why Voldemort never tried to get them on his side before, it is likely that he thought them to be too close to Dumbledore to want anything to do with his side of the war. Or perhaps it was because he knew of my existence."** Tarana paused. **"On Halloween, ten years ago, he approached your house while I was hunting."**

Hagrid took up the story at a glance from Tarana. "You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then-an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing-he tried to kill you, too. Wanted to make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh-took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even-but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age-the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewitts-an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."

Harry jumped when Vernon spoke, having almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there.

"Load of old tosh,"

Looking over at his uncle, Harry noticed that Vernon must have regained his courage. He was glaring at the three of them: himself, Hagrid, and Tarana, his fists clenched.

"Now, you listen here boy." he snarled. "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured-and as for all this about your parents, well, they were wierdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion-asked for all the got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types-just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end-"

At that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella with an unusual aura from inside his coat. Pointing this at Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you Dursley-I'm warning you-one more word…"

In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant or torn to pieces by the rumbling panther beside his nephew, Vernon's courage failed him once more.

"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down.

Harry meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them. "But what happened to Vol-, sorry-I mean, You-Know-Who?"

"Good question Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tired ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest mystery, see…he was gettin' more an' more powerful-why'd he go?"

"**Some rumors say he died. Which is fucking bullshit in my opinion. I doubt he had enough humanity left in him to 'die'. Others, more likely rumors, say he's still out there, bidding his time. People who were on his side came back to Dumbledore's. Some of them coming out of…trances of sorts. The entirety of my kind believe that he's still out there somewhere, but lost his power. Too weak for the moment. Because something about you stopped him, Harry. There was something that happened that night that he hadn't counted on. You may not have killed him as the rumors state, but you sure as hell set him back."** Tarana said quietly.

Hagrid looked at Harry, warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Tarana felt Harry's unease and doubt. After all that he'd been through, he didn't believe himself to be special. And Tarana knew, the she and the Dursleys were both to blame.

"**Harry."** she said quietly. **"What about when your aunt cut your hair? Or when Dudley was chasing you at school?"** Harry looked into the fire, away from her piercing blue eyes. **"What about me?"** she finished, making Harry look up at her and Hagrid, smiling.

"See," Hagrid said, beaming. "Harry Potter, not a wizard-you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."

But Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight. "Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish-spell books and wands and-"

"**If he wants to go, mortal, neither you nor I will stop him." **Tarana snarled.

Hagrid was likewise upset.

"Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled-"

"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Vernon.

But, like his wife with Tarana before him, he had finally found the button that snapped Hagrid's control. Tarana didn't stop Hagrid as he seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head.

"NEVER-" he thundered. "-INSULT-ALBUS-DUMBLEDORE-IN-FRONT-OF-ME!" He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley-there was a flash of violet light, and a sound like a firecracker.

Tarana heard a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands over his fat bottom, howling in pain when he turned his back on them, Harry and Tarana saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.

Vernon roared, pulling Petunia and Dudley into the other room. He cast one last terrified/angry look at Hagrid and Tarana, who was staring at the family with amusement, and slammed the door behind them.

Hagrid looked down at his umbrella, stroking his beard. "Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully. "Didn' work anyway. Was suppos' to turn into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway, there wasn't much left ter do."

Tarana broke the silence that followed. An amused gaze was locked onto Hagrid, as she addressed Harry. **"Don't mention that to anyone at Hogwarts. Hagrid isn't supposed to do magic."**

Harry looked up at Hagrid.

"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" he asked.

"Oh well-I was at Hogwarts meself but I-er-got expelled ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. Snapped me wand in half an' everything."

Harry was going to ask why Hagrid was expelled, but Tarana interrupted.

"**It's getting late, young one. You've had a long day and we've got a lot to do tomorrow."**

Hagrid, grateful for the panther's intervention, took off his thick coat and threw it to Harry. "You can kip under that," he said. "Don't mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."

Harry didn't miss the hungry look that came to Tarana's eyes, and he tried and failed to hide his laughter.


	5. Diagon Alley and Fallen

This Chapter was Revised 8/21/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Five: Diagon Alley and Fallen**_

Harry woke early the next morning, snuggling deeper into the softness of his pillow. He could tell it was daylight, but he kept his eyes shut tight.

"It was a dream," he told himself firmly, trying to destroy any hope before he opened his eyes and found everything of the night before to be false. "I dreamt a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards and my Guardian is a black panther. I'll open my eyes and I'll be at home in my cupboard.

There was a loud tapping noise, followed by a quiet snicker.

_And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door._ Harry thought, his heart sinking.

'_**Open your eyes young one.**_**'** the voice, no-Tarana, whispered.

The tapping was insistent and he sat up, opening his eyes. Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him. The hut was full of sunlight.

The storm was over.

Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa and his pillow had been the black fur of Tarana's stomach. Looking out the window an owl rapped its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.

Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him. He scrambled to the window and jerked it open, allowing the owl to swoop in and drop the newspaper on top of Hagrid before landing by Tarana's tail and beginning to attack the giant's coat.

"Don't do that!" Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak at him, receiving a sharp snarl from Tarana. "What does it…"

Tarana swatted the owl away with her tail. **"He wants payment for delivering the paper. Look through his pockets."** She told him.

Harry nodded and began to look through the pockets, partially disgusted by what he found, even as he was pulling bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags, and … a handful of strange-looking coins, from the pockets.

"Five knuts." came a mumbled order from Hagrid.

"Knuts?"

"The little bronze ones." Hagrid answered.

Harry counted out five of the little bronze coins and placed them in the small leather pouch tied to the owl's talon. Then he turned his attention to the coins as the owl flew out the window.

He didn't see Tarana move until she placed a paw over the coins, blocking his view.

'_**You're fine, Harry. You have everything you need.**_**'** she projected.

"Where am I going to get money?" Harry asked quietly.

"**Gringotts. It's a wizard's bank run by goblins."** Tarana winked. **"It's supposed to be the safest place for anything, except for maybe Hogwarts."** she stood and Harry followed, noticing that Hagrid was watching them, waiting.

"Got everythin'? Come on, then."

Harry and Tarana followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now, and the sea gleamed in the sunlight.

The boat Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.

"How did you guys get here?" Harry asked, looking around.

Tarana was quiet.

"Flew," said Hagrid.

"_Flew?_"

"Yeah-but we'll go back in this. Not supposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."

Harry and Hagrid settled down in the boat.

Tarana tilted her head.

"Come on, Tarana." Harry said. Tarana's eyes flickered red and the boat began to move, gently gliding away from the rocks and slowly picking up pace. Once she determined that it was far enough away that the Dursleys wouldn't try anything, Tarana jumped, landing beside the boat, a golden aura settled on the water beneath her paws.

Hagrid took out his newspaper after a brief conversation with Harry, and Tarana heard her charge turn to her where she was keeping pace beside the boat.

"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" he asked.

Tarana didn't bat an eye, having been listening to the conversation.

"**Spells-enchantments. Some say there are dragons by the higher security vaults. And then of course, you humans would then need to find your way back out. The bank is hundreds of miles under London, deeper than the London Underground. You'd most likely starve to death just trying to get out." **

Harry thought about this in silence for a few more minutes.

"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual." Hagrid muttered, turning the page.

"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked.

"'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."

"But what does the Ministry of Magic _do_?"

"Well, their main job is to keep it from the muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."

"Why?"

"**Because people would than want magical solutions to their problems. My opinion, you're all better off left alone. Once they get what they want from you, I don't doubt they'll begin another witch hunt."** Tarana told him, as she jumped up onto the wall of the harbor, seconds before the boat itself gently tapped against it.

Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up beside Tarana.

Passersby stared at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the train station and Harry understood Tarana's desire to follow out of sight. The two earned enough odd looks, with Hagrid pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that Harry? Things these muggles dream up, eh?", that walking through the town with a black panther would probably draw even more unwanted attention.

"Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up. "Tarana said there might be _dragons_ at Gringotts. Is that true?"

"Well, so they say." answered Hagrid, his voice acquiring a dream-like quality. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."

"You'd _like_ one?" Harry exclaimed, horrified at the very idea of having a several ton, skyscraper tall beast living in his backyard like a pet.

"Wanted one ever since I was a kid-here we go."

They'd reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes and Hagrid, who didn't understand 'muggle money', as he called it, gave the bills to Harry so he could buy their tickets.

As they were boarding the train, Harry felt something brush his ankle. Looking down, he locked eyes with a black kitten.

A kitten with astonishing blue eyes that sparkled with intelligence and mischief.

Harry blinked. "Tarana?" he asked quietly.

'_**A kitten will draw far less attention to you, Harry. And I'm easier to hide this way. I really don't like this form, so I hope you're happy.'**_ Came the panther's reply, her voice playfully mutinous.

Harry just smiled happily and picked her up.

People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.

Tarana sent Harry various images involving Hagrid and his yellow tent, all of which made him bite back hysterical laughter on his new friend's behalf.

"Still got yer letter, Harry?" Hagrid asked as he counted stitches. Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket. "Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list of everything yeh need."

Tarana nudged the envelope in her charges hands and he unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before, and read:

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_Uniform_

_First-year students will require:_

_1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

_2. One plain pointed hat (black) for daywear_

_3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

_4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)_

_Please note that all pupils' clothing should carry nametags_

_Course Books_

_All students should have a copy of each of the following:_

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade One)

_By Miranda Goshawk_

A History of Magic

_By Bathilda Bagshot_

Magical Theory

_By Adalbert Waffling_

A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration

_By Emeric Switch_

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi

_By Phyllida Spore_

Magical Drafts and Potions

_By Arsenius Jigger_

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

_By Newt Scamander_

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection

_By Quentin Trimble_

_Other Equipment_

_1 wand_

_1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

_1 set glass or crystal phials_

_1 telescope_

_1 set of brass scales_

_Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad_

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS_

"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.

Hagrid smiled and Tarana said slyly, _**'If you know where to go.'**_

Harry had never been to London before. Although both Hagrid and Tarana seemed to know where they were going, Hagrid was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground, and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.

"I don't know how the muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator to where Tarana was waiting at the top, still in her kitten form with her tail lashing in amusement, and saw a road lined with shops.

Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry, with Tarana now on his shoulder once more, had to do was keep close behind him. They passed bookshops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand. This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people.

Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them? Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks? Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up?

If Harry hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humor, he might have thought so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid and Tarana had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting them.

"This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."

It was a tiny, grubby looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there.

The people hurrying by didn't even glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big bookshop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all.

In fact, Harry had the peculiar feeling that only he, Hagrid, and Tarana could see it.

'_**Because it's true.' **_Tarana said, as Hagrid steered her charge inside, letting out a soft growl in warning not to touch the boy again.

Hagrid wisely backed off.

Inside, Tarana jumped from Harry's shoulder, transforming in a soft red light back into the Black Panther Harry was quickly growing used to.

As she came to rest beside him, her eyes narrowed, a familiar scent caressing her senses.

'**Is that…'** Tarana was too busy looking around the dingy pub to answer Alex.

Harry on the other hand, was thinking more along the lines of, 'for a famous place this place is a dump'.

A few old women were sitting in one corner, drinking from tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut.

The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid, they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"

"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business." said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder, having forgotten about the warning the boy's guardian had given him until too late. He cast a glance at the panther, and found her gaze traversing the room, searching for something; he let out a mental sigh of relief.

"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this-can this be-?" The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent. "Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry Potter…what an honor."

He hurried out from behind the bar and rushed towards Harry, intending on shaking his hand, but he stopped short when a snarling black mass appeared between the two, nearly taking of his hand. Tom gasped, taking in the Black Panther that stood between him and Harry.

A quiet murmur had started among the patrons.

'_**Look, talk, but touch and I'll take off the appendage.'**_ Tarana warned.

Tom looked the panther over, taking in the blue eyes, protective stance, and bared fangs. "I don't believe it." he whispered. "Tarana." the bartender bowed to her. "We have just seen one of your generals, Tarana." he said.

Tarana whispered, **"I noticed."**

Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at the two of them. The old woman was puffing on her pipe without realizing that it had gone out.

Hagrid was wearing a slightly forced smile behind him, most likely having to do with the fact that Tom seemed to know Tarana.

Tarana raised her head to look around the pub once more. **"Hagrid, take him to Diagon Alley. If I find that you stayed here longer than fifty seconds past me, I will make sure that Dumbledore needs to hire a new Groundskeeper. Harry, I will meet up with you later. I'm trusting you both to stay out of trouble until we're together once more."** she said, already stalking towards the back of the pub, Tom following after her, his wand in his hand.

Hagrid swallowed and did as he was told, taking Harry after her, passing Tom as he came back.

Harry suddenly felt very vulnerable. He hadn't realized how much safer he felt in Tarana's presence until it was gone. He watched as Hagrid took his umbrella out, and counted bricks up above the trashcan.

"Three up…two across…" he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry." He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.

The brick he touched quivered-it wriggled-in the middle, a small hole appeared-it grew wider and wider-a second later, they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.

"Welcome," said Hagrid, proudly. "To Diagon Alley." He grinned at Harry's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into a solid wall.

The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop.

---

Tarana, meanwhile, was searching out the general that Tom had seen. If the scent was correct than she was sure it was the Malfoy Guardian, and it was this that she feared. For if the Malfoy currently under the guardian's protection turned out anything like his father, they would have quite a few problems. However, if her general was smart, and he always had been in the past, he'd be teaching the child a few lessons of his own, ones that contradicted Lucius Malfoy, especially in the light of what occurred with Lucius' former master.

Around the time that Harry was walking out of Gringotts bank, Tarana found who she was looking for.

On the roof of Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

"**Fallen." **she whispered, standing across from the snarling red wolf.

"**What do you want here, Tarana. You told me that we would go our separate ways until the time came. You know as well as I that Voldemort and his guardians have not risen yet to power and your charge has made no moves against him." **

Tarana sat, amused at her friend's violent response to her presence alone.

"**Calm yourself, Fallen. I'm not here for a fight. I'm here to look after my own charge. As are you, I'm sure."**

Fallen relaxed to a point, glad that he had no reason to fight the older guardian. She was one of the best, even in his top form; he wouldn't have been able to beat her alone.

"**So the Potter boy has been under your protection all along."** he whispered, crimson eyes searching her form. **"And you haven't aged a day since then."**

Tarana smiled.

"**Neither have you, Fallen. It's good to see you."**

Fallen, for the first time since he and his two best friends had gone their separate ways, smiled.

---

Below the two, Harry and Draco Malfoy, Fallen's charge, were having a conversation of their own, unaware of the reunion between the guardians.

"Hello," Draco said. "Hogwarts too?"

"Yes." Harry told him.

"My father's next door buying books and mother's up the street looking at wands," Draco said, his voice bored and drawling, as his father had taught him, he wouldn't drop it until he was sure he could trust the unruly haired boy, just as he'd been taught. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."

Harry was, on the outside, strongly reminded of Dudley, but there was something about the way the boy moved, something that called to him in much the same manner as Tarana did, that made him think it was all an act, and an almost perfect one.

"Have _you _got your own broom?" the boy went on.

"No." Harry said simply.

"Play Quidditch at all?"

"No." Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.

"_I_ do-Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"

Harry was feeling more and more stupid by the minute. "No."

"Well, no one really knows until they get there do the, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been-imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

Harry heard the biting way the boy said the word 'Slytherin', but didn't comment on it, instead opting to shrug as well as he could. The conversation continued for a few minutes, Harry spotting Hagrid outside with two ice cream cones.

Suddenly, Draco relaxed, as Harry was getting down to leave, and Harry allowed himself a private smile.

'_**Stop.'**_ came the command from his Guardian. _**'Wait for the boy. He's not as cold as he appears, but watch out for his father, my business is through, we're on our way back.'**_

Harry felt Tarana leave his mind once more, but something else caught his attention. The boy was smiling slightly, not as stuck up and stiff, and Harry was pleased that his judge of character was spot on.

As he walked out, he sat and ate the ice cream that Hagrid had bought him without an explanation, causing Hagrid to stare at him.

"What's up, Harry?" he asked.

Harry shook his head. "Just waiting for someone." he said quietly.

Hagrid peaked through the window and saw the boy.

"Harry, yer not waiting for that Malfoy boy are yeh?" he asked.

Harry shrugged, licking his ice cream.

"I guess." Hagrid shook his head.

"Come on Harry, we gotta go. Lots ter do, an' all." Harry shot his new friend a look.

"Well, I'm sorry Hagrid, but as much as I trust you, I trust the Guardian that I've had for ten years more."

---

As he said this, Draco exited the shop, and froze, turning to look at Harry and Hagrid. "Did you say guardian?"

Harry nodded.

"**Well, this is Draco Malfoy."** came a voice behind him. It give him the same sense of 'hearing' the voice, but it wasn't the one he was used to. Turning he saw Fallen with a black panther, the panther standing ahead of his guardian, clearly more dominant than his wolf friend.

Looking at his own Guardian, he spotted something that he had never seen before.

Fallen had a spark of happiness in his crimson eyes.

"Fallen?" he asked quietly as the panther Guardian advanced on him, blue eyes traveling his frame.

"**Don't worry. She's safe."**

Tarana snorted. **"I'm about as safe as you are right now, Fallen. Content to sit back and watch until my charge is threatened. You know this. It's how we've always worked."**

Harry stood up and watched curiously as the red wolf, Fallen, he was guessing stared at him. He blinked and the wolf chuckled.

"**Draco, do you know who you've been talking to?"** he asked.

Draco shook his head, his eyes still on the sleek Black Panther. **"Tarana, stop it, you're making the boy uncomfortable."**

Tarana smirked and moved to Harry's side.

She saw Hagrid shifting uncomfortably and she growled softly.

'_**Touch the Malfoy boy, and I will not stop Fallen from breaking you to pieces. He's got a temper.'**_

Hagrid blinked and found three pairs of eyes on him and Tarana. "Wha'?"

Draco sighed and looked at Harry, a small smirk on his face. "I asked if it would be alright if I got the rest of my supplies with you. I'm not too keen on going back to my father right now."

Tarana nodded. **"You may."** she said.

Harry grinned.

He rather liked Draco when he didn't have the barriers and cold mask on. He was one of his first friends. With a sigh, he turned and followed the group, joking and toying around without a care in the world. Fallen and Tarana had disappeared into the shadows somewhere.

After a while, Draco looked at Harry who had fallen silent. "What's wrong?" he asked, dropping back to walk beside the Boy Who Lived.

Harry shrugged. "Tired I guess." he whispered.

Draco looked at him, carefully.

"What's really bothering you?" he asked.

Harry glared at his friend lightly.

"I just told you, I'm tired."

Draco shook his head.

"Sorry that I don't believe you." he said, with a small smirk.

Harry rolled his eyes, just before Draco froze. "I need to go." he whispered.

Harry followed the blonde's gaze to see a man walking down the street.

'Fallen.' Draco called. 'Father's approaching.'

'_**We're nearby. Get Harry and Hagrid to move on. Turn and walk in the other direction, as if you've just passed them.'**_

Draco nodded slightly, sure that his guardian could see it.

"You and Hagrid keep walking. I need to go if I'm going to keep the fact that you're the 'Boy Who Lived' a secret."

Harry nodded and hurried to catch up to Hagrid.

Fallen jumped down beside Draco, walking beside him, senses extended as if to keep an eye on what's going on, when in truth just to keep an eye on Tarana.

'You like her?' Draco asked, fingers idly running through the coarse fur on the wolf's head.

'_**No. She is but a friend. Before we took on these forms, I had a lover. And I wait to see him. Tarana is just someone that I hadn't expected to see yet.'**_ answered his Guardian.

Draco smiled thoughtfully, before he put up the barriers that kept his father and the rest of the world out, back up.

By this point, Harry and Hagrid only had to get a wand.

Tarana had returned to his side after they were out of the elder Malfoy's line of sight, and was now walking calmly, and for the most part silently, beside Harry.

"Just yer wand left-oh yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present." Hagrid said, looking over the list in his hand.

Harry felt himself go red. "You don't have to-"

"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what; I'll get you an animal." Hagrid said, looking apologetically at Tarana. "Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'll be laughed at…an' I don't like cats, they make me sneeze…. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want an owl; an' they're dead useful, carry yer mail and everythin'."

Tarana only shook her head at the giant's rambling and followed the two, keeping a close eye on how close Hagrid got to her charge. She wasn't sure just how far she could trust him yet.

Twenty minutes later, they left Eelops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel bright eyes and terrified squawks as Tarana prowled the lines of bird filled cages.

Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy white owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. Harry only stopped stammering when Tarana growled.

Now they were on their way to Ollivander's to get Harry's wand.

Tarana could feel Harry's excitement, leeching into her own. She smiled as Harry looked at the wand shop.

It was just as she remembered it, narrow and shabby, peeling gold letters over the door read: Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC. A single wand lay on a faced purple cushion in the dusty, grime covered window.

Entering the shop, Harry stood in the center while Tarana lay, curling around her charge's feet and Hagrid sat in a chair to wait.

For a minute, the shop was silent.

Harry felt Tarana tense before he heard it, but it still wasn't enough warning. He still managed to nearly jumped out of his skin when a soft voice said, "Good afternoon."

To his credit, Hagrid must have jumping as well, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got off the chair quickly.

An old man was standing behind them; wide, pale eyes shining much like Tarana's did, like moons through the gloom.

"Hello." Harry said slowly, eyeing the man.

"Ah, yes." the man said. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon, Harry Potter."

Harry noticed it wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand."

"**Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. She favored Charms."** Tarana whispered.

Ollivander smiled. "Miss Tarana." he greeted the panther.

Tarana stood, nodding her greeting, and Ollivander turned back to Harry. "Your father on the other hand, favored a-"

"**Mahogany. Eleven inches. Favored for Transfiguration." **Tarana smiled whimsically. **"For obvious reasons."**

Ollivander nodded.

"I see you remember your old charges, Miss. Tarana."

Tarana only continued to smile.

Ollivander, unlike the bartender, kept his distance, but came close enough that he could ghost his hand over the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.

"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did this." he said softly. "Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in wrong hands…well if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do…" He shook his head, and to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.

"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again…Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy wasn't it?"

"It was sir, yes." answered Hagrid.

"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled." the wand maker mused.

While the two talked, Harry had looked down at Tarana. 'How does everyone seem to know you here?' he asked, tapping into his side of the mental link between him and his Guardian.

Tarana looked up at him. _**'I was your father's guardian. And remained as such until you were born.**__'_ came the answer.

"Oh." he muttered, as Ollivander turned back to him.

"Well now, Mr. Potter. Let me see?" he pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"

Harry blinked.

'_**The hand you write with, young one.'**_Tarana projected.

Harry held out his right arm and the wand maker measured from shoulder to finger, wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit, but it went to wrap around her charge's head,

Tarana's eyes flashed red and it wrapped itself up, in the fireplace. Ollivander came back, took one look at the measuring tape and sighed.

"That's the second measuring tape you've destroyed." he sighed again, before moving on. "Every Ollivander wand has the care of a powerful, magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you'll never get such good results with another wizard's wand." Ollivander handed Harry a wand. "Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible."

Harry took it.

'_**Wave it, Harry.'**_Tarana told him, hiding her amusement well, but not well enough, if Harry's dirty look was anything to go on.

So, feeling very foolish, he waved it around a bit, but Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.

"Maple and Phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy."

Once again, Harry tried, but he had barely raised the wand when it too, was snatched back.

"No, no-here ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on."

Harry tried.

And tried.

He had no idea what Ollivander was looking for, but the pile of tried wands was growing higher and higher on the chair.

Unlike Harry, who was growing more anxious, the more wands Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.

"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere-I wonder, now-yes, why not-unusual combination-holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple.

As the wand was taken from the box, Tarana's head snapped up, eyes seeking out the wand with the familiar, yet different aura.

Harry took it and felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it down with a shimmer of red and gold sparks.

Hagrid whooped and clapped, while Ollivander sought out Tarana's icy gaze. "This is curious. Very, very curious." he muttered.

Harry heard him.

"Sorry, but _what's_ curious?" Ollivander made momentary eye contact with the Guardian at Harry's feet, before fixing Harry with his pale stare.

"I remember every wand I've ever said, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix who's tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather…just one other. It is very curious indeed, that you should be destined for this wand when it's brother-why its brother gave you that scar."

Harry swallowed.

"**Thirteen and half inches. Yew. The wand chooses the wizard, Harry. I think, the fact that I'm your Guardian aside, that we can expect great things from you Harry. After all, Voldemort did great things as well, terrible as they were, they were still great, in the eyes of the Wizarding World."** Tarana said, watching Harry shiver as he paid the seven gold Galleons for his wand.

The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry, Hagrid, and Tarana made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall and Leaky Cauldron, now empty of all but a man wearing a turban.

Tarana paused and stared after him as he passed them, on his way into Diagon Alley.

'**That's odd.'** Alex murmured.

"_**Indeed. I got nothing. No emotion, no thoughts, just an odd smell."**_ Tarana whispered.

'**Occlumency? Or possession?'** Alex tried. **'Or perhaps we're just tired. We haven't slept in a long while.'**

Tarana stared after the man. _**"You can't believe that last one."**_ she whispered.

'**No.'** Alex agreed. **'Something about him…something is off about that man.'**

"Tarana?" Harry asked quietly from the door.

Tarana shook her head and felt the world grow as she took on her kitten form and climbed onto Harry's shoulder, watching Hagrid's nose twitch in amusement.

A short while later, Hagrid looked at Harry over his hamburger. "You alright, Harry? Yer very quiet." he said.

Harry wasn't sure he could explain.

He'd just had the best birthday of his life-and yet…. He chewed his hamburger, occasionally breaking off pieces of the one beside him to give to Tarana who had refused to leave Harry's shoulder, while trying to find the words to explain.

"Everyone thinks I'm special." he said at last. "Those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Mr. Ollivander…but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect me to do great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry-I mean, the night my parents died."

Tarana was silent. For now, she would test the giant that had gained her charge's trust so easily.

She watched as Hagrid leaned across the table.

Behind the wild beard and eyebrows, he wore a very kind smile. "Don't you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts-I did-still do 'smatter o' fact. And yeh've got sommat no body else does."

Harry looked at him.

"Yeh've got Tarana."

Harry smiled, turning his head slightly to look at the panther-turned-kitten.

Hagrid helped Harry and Tarana onto the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope.

"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September-King's Cross-it's all on yer ticket. Tarana can help I'm sure. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with a very detailed description of what T'rana did to 'em with yer owl, she'll know where to find me…See yeh soon, Harry."

As the train pulled out of the station, Harry looked out the window until he couldn't see Hagrid.

Then turned his attention to Tarana, as she played with the bow on one of the packages in a very kitten-like manner, despite what she said about not liking the form.

Thinking about the gifts she'd given him today, he couldn't help but smile. His life had changed in the span of almost 24 hours.

And he couldn't help but think that it was for the better.


	6. Hogwarts Express and the Third Guardian

This Chapter was Revised 8/24/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Six: Hogwarts Express and the Third Guardian**_

Harry's last month with the Dursleys was better than he expected. He spent most of his time in his room with his new owl, Hedwig, a name he'd found in _A History of Magic_, and Tarana, who was now rooming with him instead of staying outside.

His school books were interesting, and what he didn't understand, Tarana would happily explain. He would lie on his bed, reading late into the night, Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased.

It was a good thing that Petunia never came in to vacuum anymore; scorch marks covered the floor where Tarana had burned the carcasses of the animals that Hedwig brought back for the two to chow on.

On the last day of August, Harry thought he'd better talk to the Dursleys about getting to King's Cross the next day, but it wasn't until early evening that he got up the nerve to bring up the magical world to his aunt and uncle. So, he and Tarana went downstairs to the living room where they were watching what appeared to be the evening news on TV.

Harry cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Tarana snickered maliciously when Dudley screamed and ran from the room.

"Er-Uncle Vernon?"

Vernon grunted to show he was listening.

"I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow, to-to go to Hogwarts."

Vernon grunted again and Tarana let out a low growl of annoyance, watching as the TV flickered off and her eyes returned to sparkling blue. Harry was proud of her restraint, as he was more than aware of how dependant the Dursleys were on their television set, and equally as aware of how much Tarana loved to cause them undo pain and/or suffering.

"**Your nephew is talking to you. You ****will**** pay attention."**

Vernon slowly turned to face the two, face slowly changing from a nice healthy tan to a sickly shade of off white.

"Would it be alright if you gave me a lift?"

Vernon nodded stiffly.

"Thank you." Harry turned to go back upstairs, but Tarana knew the man had more to say, and tensed beside her chosen, the 'freakishness' was never brought up without some type of remark to make Harry just that little more doubtful about its existence, even with her by his side.

She wasn't disappointed.

"Funny way to get to a wizard's school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"

Harry said nothing, but Tarana answered with complete seriousness.

"**Actually, they were banned from use because people either fell or were spotted. Pity because it was always fun to watch someone fall to their deaths."** She grinned viciously, fangs shimmering.

Vernon and Petunia immediately took noticed the implied threat and paled, further in Vernon's case, looking more ghostly than sickly now.

"Where is this school anyway?" Vernon asked, after regaining his voice.

"I don't know. I just take the train from platform nine and three quarters at eleven o' clock." he read.

His aunt and uncle stared.

"Platform what?"

"Nine and three quarters." Harry said again, fighting down a blush with surprising ease.

"Don't talk rubbish," Vernon snapped. "There is no platform nine and three quarters."

"**Yes there is." **Tarana said simply, causing all eyes to fall on her once more. **"What, you expect everything to be out in the open, Dursley? You get us to King's Cross, I'll get him to Hogwarts and out of your hair for a while." **she said, turning and walking up the stairs to Harry's room.

Harry followed a minute later to see an owl on the bed.

An eagle owl to be precise.

Blinking, he looked at Tarana, whom it appeared, was leaving the clearly appetizing treat, if the hunger in her blue eyes was anything to go on, alone.

"**Smells like your friend Malfoy." **she said, apparently by way of explanation.

Harry's eyes lit up and he took the letter from the eagle owl's talon, watching as it flew off before opening the letter.

_Harry and Tarana,_

_Fallen wanted me to warn you that my cousin is entering into our year at Hogwarts. She takes after my father more than I do(personally, I think its my Uncle Nat's influence), so I wouldn't expect any sort of friendship from her, nor peace once we get to Hogwarts. But I can tell you that she doesn't have a guardian, so picking on her could be fun. _

_Can't wait to see you at Hogwarts. _

_Forgive me in advance for anything I may do._

_Draco_

Harry blinked.

Tarana pawed at his hand to lower the letter. After reading it, she chuckled. **"Leave it to Fallen to find out what the elder Malfoy wants kept a secret."** she muttered, turning and curling up under the window. **"Get some sleep, young one."** she whispered.

---

Harry woke at five o' clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. He got up quietly, unaware of the icy blue eyes that watched his every move.

He checked his Hogwarts list to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything and turned to put Hedwig into her cage, but paused when he saw blue eyes watching him. "You're awake." he said. "And here I thought for once I'd woken up before you."

Tarana chuckled.

"**Perhaps one day, Harry. But not anytime soon."** she responded cheekily.

---

At quarter to eleven, they arrived at King's Cross station, Harry with Tarana once more on his shoulder in her much disliked kitten form, followed Vernon to the platforms, just as a rather large group of red heads arrived, nearly running them over in their haste to get into the station, having more important things to do, like get rid of his nephew, even Vernon ignored them.

"Well, there you are boy. Platform nine-Platform te-"

Tarana cut him off.

'_**Walk through it.'**_ she said.

Harry looked at her oddly and Vernon scowled.

Tarana chuckled. _**'I'm serious. Watch.'**_ she said, as one of the red heads ran towards the barrier between the platforms…and disappeared.

Vernon scowled and walked away without a word to his nephew and his freakish pet.

Harry watched as two more of the red headed boys disappeared into the wall. Tarana jumped off his shoulder and walked towards the group.

Harry followed.

"**Weasley."** Tarana whispered, as if testing the name out on her tongue. Letting out a what she knew to be a totally convincing, and utterly useless purr, she rubbed against the woman's foot.

---

Looking down, Molly Weasley saw a black cat with striking blue eyes. Her eyes widened.

"Hello." Harry said, as he kneeled down to pick up Tarana. "I'm really sorry about that." he whispered, giving a small smile in apology.

"First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new too."

Harry blinked, startled that she knew, despite that he _knew_ he had given no outward indication to his 'abnormal' status.

'_**She knows, young one. But she will not tell.'**_ Tarana told him. _**'If you don't trust me, ask the pure blood.'**_ she told him.

'I'm only doing this because you made it awkward.' Harry shot back testily.

"The thing is-the thing is I don't know how to-" he blushed and looked away, making Tarana snort and mentally commend his acting skills. He gave her a dramatic mental picture of him bowing and tried to hold onto his act and not spoil it by laughing.

"How to get on the platform?" she asked kindly, and Harry nodded, embarrassed. "Not to worry. All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."

"Er-okay." Harry said, hesitantly stepping back towards his trolley.

He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier.

It looked quite solid.

'_**Hurry up, Harry. I want to change.'**_ Tarana hissed, sounding oddly childish for the panther Guardian.

He started to walk towards the barrier, people jostling him on their way to platforms nine and ten.

Harry walked faster.

Closing his eyes as he approached the barrier, he waited for a crash that didn't come.

At Tarana's mental snicker, he opened his eyes and saw a scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said 'Hogwarts Express, eleven o' clock'.

Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the wall had been, with the words _Platform Nine and Three Quarters_ on it.

He looked down at Tarana, who was now in her panther form once more, and was looking up at him in silent amusement. "We did it." he whispered.

Tarana smirked. _**'Of course.'**_ she projected as he moved out of the way and further onto the platform.

Harry couldn't help but notice that she carried herself differently here. More wary than he'd ever seen here, but similar to Diagon Alley.

As they began to walk towards the train, Harry asked, "What's wrong?"

Tarana smiled slightly.

'_**Guardians use different magic than you do. Our main power, our elemental ability, will begin to get harder and harder to use the closer we get to Hogwarts. Therefore, we need to be more wary here.'**_ she projected calmly.

"Oh." Harry whispered. "I thought you said Hogwarts was safe."

This time, Tarana did smile. _**'For you, yes. Those like Fallen and I are open targets for rogues.'**_ she answered.

Harry wanted to ask what a rogue was, but kept silent when he saw the far away look in her eyes and left the Guardian to her thoughts. He knew, from what little Tarana would tell him, that there are very few still living of her kind, and he knew, even if she didn't say it, that she worried about everyone of them.

The two walked to the train, finding an empty compartment, he put Hedwig in first and then started to lift the heavy trunk into the train, but it almost fell on his foot.

"Want a hand?" it was one of the red haired twins he'd followed through the barrier, one of Ron's brothers.

"Yes please." Harry panted, throwing a look in Tarana's direction, but she was distracted by something else, and was sniffing the air and ground a few meters away, apparently not even noticing that he was having problems. He put it down to perhaps smelling Fallen and wanting to find him on the train. Despite his minor jealousy that she no longer thought solely of him, he was happy that she had friends, and wouldn't hold it against her.

"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"

With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.

"Thanks." said Harry, pushing away sweaty hair, accidentally revealing the lightning shaped scar.

"What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's scar.

"Blimey," said the other.

"Are you-?"

"He _is_," said the first twin.

"Aren't you?" he added to Harry.

"What?" asked Harry, looking between the two in amusement and curiousity.

"_Harry Potter_." chorused the twins.

"Oh him," Harry muttered, looking away from the two red heads before clearing his throat and looking back at them. "I mean, yes, I am."

The boys gawked at him.

"**Continue staring, Weasleys and I will take out an eye each."** came a quiet warning.

Harry blinked.

That wasn't Tarana.

"Fallen?" he asked quietly.

The red wolf walked from the shadowed areas of the compartment, looking for all the world like he owned it. 

_If the Malfoys are as powerful and rich as Tarana says they are, why would their family Guardian act any differently?'_ He mentally snorted.

The twins swallowed nervously before looking at one another and returning their look to Fallen and Harry and grinning.

"Cool." they said together.

"Fred? George? Are you there?"

"Coming, mom!" the twins called back.

With a last look at Harry and Fallen, the twins hopped off the train.

"What's going on Fallen?" Harry asked. "Where's Tarana?"

Fallen gave the impression of an indifferent shrug.

"**She's busy."** he told Harry, turning to leave. **"Good bye, for the moment, Potter."** and he was gone as if he had never been.

Turning out the window, Harry caught the conversation between the red heads. The Weasleys, Harry guessed.

"Where's Percy?" said the mother.

The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes and Harry noticed a shiny silver badge on his chest with the letter _P_ on it.

"Can't stay long mother," he said. "I'm up front; the prefects have got two compartments to themselves-"

"Oh, are you a _prefect_, Percy?" said one of the twins with great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."

"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin.

"Once-"

"Or twice-"

"A minute-"

"All summer-"

"Oh shut up." Percy said, blushing.

Harry would have continued to listen, had Tarana not literally stumbled into the compartment, blood streaming from deep marks on her sides, as if she'd been bitten by something with a huge mouth and more fangs than a great white.

"Tarana!" he said loudly, jumping to his feet.

'_**I'll be fine, young one. Just…give me a few minutes to rest.'**_ she whispered, apparently too weak, from either energy or loss of blood, Harry wasn't sure, to speak.

"What happened?!" he asked, unnerved by her state, he hadn't seen her in anything less than perfect condition, even in the face of Vernon's rifle.

'_**Please try not to yell, Harry.'**_ she told him quietly. _**'As for what happened…I made a move I shouldn't have. Fallen will be most displeased.'**_

The last sentence came out as little more than a whisper and Harry was sure it wasn't meant for him.

"Why?" Harry asked, helping his weakened Guardian onto the seat and sitting down, letting her lay her head on his lap and he brushed the fur on her side near the wounds, checking the damage.

'_**That is not your concern…unless he decides to reveal it.'**_ Tarana answered.

Harry blinked and opened his mouth to ask another question, but paused as he saw the wounds by his fingers closing themselves.

Looking at her face with every intention of asking what was happening to her, he saw her asleep. He started when the train began to move, stroking Tarana as she fell deeper into a regenerative sleep.

A few minutes later, the door of the compartment slid open and the youngest red headed boy came in and paused.

He visibly swallowed at the sight of the full-grown panther, unconsciously purring under Harry's fingers.

"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing to the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."

Harry shook his head, returning to watching the surroundings as they flew by the train.

The boy sat, and the compartment fell silent once more, broken only by Tarana's purring.

"What's up with her?" the boy asked suddenly, though by the flush and wary look in his eyes, Harry guessed that this wasn't the question he wanted to ask.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know." he answered, looking from the window to his guardian, worry over the first person to actually care for him, creasing every line in his face.

"Hey Ron."

The twins were back.

"Listen, we're going down to the middle of the train-Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

Ron mumbled something.

"Harry, did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George… Weasley" They paused, trailing off as they finally took note of the huge mass of black fur and muscle spread out on the seat. "Is that yours?" one of the twins asked, staring fixedly at Tarana.

Harry nodded and the twins exchanged another look before turning back to Harry and chorusing: "Wicked." before disappearing down the train.

"I'm Ron." the boy, Harry now knew to be Ron, whispered. "Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.

Harry nodded, silently amused by the other's lack of tact, and embarrassed by the obvious reverence and embarrassment that the Weasley put into every syllable of his response.

"Oh-well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes." said Ron. "And have you really got-you know…" he pointed at Harry's forehead.

Harry used his free hand to pull back his bangs, revealing the lightning scar.

Ron stared. "So that's where You-Know-Who-?"

"Yes." said Harry, looking back out the window, unnerved with where this conversation was going. "But I can't remember it."

"Nothing?" asked Ron eagerly and Harry turned to look at him in disapproval, but obligingly answered.

"Well-I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."

"Wow." said Ron.

He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments.

Then Fallen entered the compartment once more.

"**You're staring."** he stated simply and Ron quickly looked out the window again, blushing bright enough to match his hair.

"Are all your family wizards?" Harry asked as he watched Fallen sit by the door, watching Tarana.

"Er-yes, I think so." said Ron, sparing a worried glance at the red wolf. "I think mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."

"So you must know loads of magic already."

"**The Weasleys are one of the pure blood families, Potter."** Fallen told him.

Ron blinked, slightly disturbed that a _wolf_ knew about his family, before he again turned his attention from the wolf.

"I heard you lived with muggles." said Ron. "What are they like?"

"Horrible-well, not all of them. My aunt, uncle, and cousin are though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."

"Five." said Ron. For some reason he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left-Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first." he took a breath and Harry let him continue his rant, but he noticed that Fallen was rolling his eyes, and he suppressed a smile, imagining the wolf's chosen doing the same thing. "You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat." Ron reached into his pocket and pulled out a sleeping, fat gray rat.

Fallen tensed and stared at the rat, hatred lined every crease of his taught body, but neither boy paid attention.

"His name is Scabbers, and he's useless. He hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made prefect, but they couldn't aff-I mean, I got Scabbers instead."

Fallen smirked, forcing his body to relax and tearing his eyes from the rat. _So, the Weasleys lost the Fortune they had all those years ago. Interesting._

Harry on the other hand, thought there was nothing wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago. He told Ron so. All about having to wear Dudley's clothes and only getting gifts from Tarana. This seemed to cheer Ron up.

"…and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort…"

Ron gasped and Harry trailed off.

"What?" Harry asked.

"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you of all people-"

"'**Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.'"** a quiet voice whispered. Harry and Fallen once more looked at Tarana.

"Tarana?" Harry asked. Tarana opened clear, cold blue eyes and fixed them on Ron, who shivered under her arctic stare.

"**Albus Dumbledore's been saying those words for twenty years, hasn't he?" **Ron swallowed. **"If you want to be different; you should start by speaking the asshole's name."**

Fallen walked into her line of sight and she looked at him sadly.

"_**I'm sorry."**_she whispered. _**"I got careless."**_

Fallen's eyes fell, briefly revealing worry and sadness before the barriers came back up.

"_**Not you're fault."**_he whispered in reply, turning away.

Around half past twelve, there was clattering outside the corridor and a smiling dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart dears?"

Harry, who hadn't had breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears tuned pink again and he muttered he'd brought sandwiches as Harry went out into the corridor.

Harry returned with bits of everything.

Fallen gave the wolf equivalent of a raised brow but otherwise said nothing, until Tarana slid off the seat.

"**We'll be back."** she said, and the two guardians were gone from sight.

---

While the two eleven year olds ate their way through the sweets, talking about anything and everything, Tarana and Fallen moved to a compartment void of all occupants, but a young boy, black hair neatly combed, and a silver, green-eyed fox.

Tarana looked at Fallen, and he whispered one word, causing the fox's gaze to move to the door.

"**Yoko."**

---

Yoko turned from his charge, ready to fight; however, he froze when green met crimson.

"What's wrong, Yoko?" he heard Blaise ask.

He didn't need to look to see that the boy was following his gaze. Yoko's eyes narrowed and he stood.

The sadness that flashed through the wolf's eyes made Blaise blink. "Is that…another guardian?"

The black panther from before stepped between the two and the glare sent in his guardian's direction made him blink again, curious. "What's going on?"

"**Yoko. Open the door."** the feminine voice caressed his ears.

Blaise swallowed. "I don't think they'll hurt us, Yoko." he whispered, walking towards the door.

Yoko's emerald eyes flashed black and plants crashed through the door. Vines and his Death Plant all loomed over the panther. However, as they came close enough to bite the neck and back as it had done previously, the wolf lunged into the plant, which shuddered and backed away from the wolf's incredibly visible black aura.

Yoko cried out, eyes closed he slid to the ground, images flashing behind his eyes.

Fallen stood at the door, a glowing eye had flared to life on his forehead.

Tarana swallowed, slightly nervous of the effects the Evil Eye could have on her friend and shocked at the tears she saw gathering in the wolf's eyes.

For the first time in seven centuries, the Malfoy Guardian shed tears as he inflicted damage to his one time lover.

Shaking her head, Tarana pulled a dangerous move. She called out the other half of Fallen's true name.

The name that of all the old friends they'd had, only herself and Yoko knew.

_**'Hiei!'**_

Fallen's two natural eyes snapped open, the eye on his forehead dimming back to nothing.

Tarana's cold barrier around her emotions was back up before Fallen had fully turned angry red eyes on her. **"You're hurting him."** she stated, voice emotionless.

Fallen blinked, before turning and walking into the compartment, the broken glass, and past the terrified eleven year old.

A flash of red and Tarana repaired the broken door, fading into the shadows, and returning back to her charge's compartment as people began to investigate the crash, of which there was no evidence.

---

Inside the compartment, Fallen lay beside Yoko on the ground, offering the fox what little comfort he could after inflicting such pain on his love.

Blaise watched with slight fascination as the Fallen gently licked his guardian's muzzle.

'_**I apologize. My instincts screamed to protect the Princess. In the process, I harmed Yoko.'**_

Blaise stood and quickly opened the door as Fallen approached it. _**'I'll see you soon, Zabini. And don't listen to Kate. She's wrong.'**_

Then he was gone.

---

Tarana approached the compartment as three figures entered, and a familiar scent laced with worry reached her nose.

Ron had been talking Harry through the finer points of Quidditch, which Harry had already heard from Draco in Diagon Alley, but was too polite to tell Ron this, when the compartment door slid open to reveal a girl with familiar platinum blond hair tied back in a high ponytail, and two boys.

Harry was immediately reminded of the letter Draco had sent him.

"Is it true?" the girl asked. "They're saying up and down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So its you, isn't it?"

"Yes." Harry answered, speaking to Draco's cousin, but he was eyeing the two boys that stood like bodyguards on either side of the girl.

"Oh. This is Crabbe and this is Goyle." said the pale girl, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy. Katelyn Malfoy."

Ron snorted quietly.

Katelyn turned to him. "No need to ask who you are. My uncle told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can count."

Ron and Harry jumped to their feet, for two very different reasons.

"**And the Malfoy family has some of the most stuck up, richest pain in the asses I have ever had the misfortune of meeting."**

Harry looked past Katelyn to see her standing beside Draco, who was desperately trying to hide his laughter at his cousin's reaction to the insult.

"**I guess this world has some sad points."**

Katelyn turned, silver eyes flashing, to confront the insulter.

Harry grinned at Ron when she hesitated at seeing Tarana.

Draco followed his friend's Guardian into the compartment.

"Draco." Katelyn said, watching her cousin with her eyes. "What are you doing with this filth?"

Tarana snorted, taking her chosen place by Harry's side, between Harry and Ron and Katelyn and the two boys she was with.

"**I assure you, Ms. Malfoy, we're all purebloods here."** she told her.

Katelyn glared at Tarana, who calmly looked past her and gestured with her tail for Draco to take a seat.

He obliged her and sat by the compartment door, glancing out before turning to Harry, and for the second time, offering his hand to the boy-who-lived.

"You'll soon find that some wizards and witches are better than others, Harry. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort." Draco glanced covertly at Katelyn, showing for whom the insult was intended. "I can help you there."

Harry stared at his friend's hand for a moment.

'_**Take it Harry. It's important to make it seem as if he's doing what Katelyn can't. It will give him more freedom at Hogwarts, if he ends up where he believes he will.'**_ Tarana projected.

Harry took it. "Thanks." he whispered, eyes widening slightly and jerking his hand back as if burned, struggling to remain calm.

Draco likewise carefully hid his surprise.

Tarana wasn't fooled.

The jerk to her mind had told her what her eyes couldn't deem from either's face.

Upon skin contact, both eleven year olds received a shock.

Her eyes narrowed.

'**Is that such a surprise, Tarana?'**

Tarana remained silent.

'**It will grow, Tarana. They will expand the relationship. Just as you did with-'**

Tarana cut Alex off with a sharp mental growl.

'_**Don't you **_**dare**_** speak his name.'**_ she warned him.

Alex sighed.

'**Tarana, you have foreseen what is to become of these two boys. You cannot stop their relationship from forming.'**

Tarana didn't reply.

"You can go now, Kate. Whatever our family wanted you to do, I'm quite sure I can handle it." Draco told his cousin, as Fallen entered the compartment, standing by Draco's side, cold, calculating eyes on the three in the middle of the room.

The three of them disappeared at once.

Draco smirked at Harry once they were out of sight. "Pretty good acting Potter." he said.

Harry grinned, pushing the thoughts of the shock out of his mind.

Fallen stared at Ron, who was looking back and forth between Harry and Draco.

"What the hell?" he asked suddenly, dropping into his seat and Harry did the same, explaining about his and Draco's first meeting in Diagon Alley.

Ron looked doubtfully at Draco. "I've heard of your family," he said darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared."

Tarana, Fallen, and Draco all rolled their eyes.

"My father didn't need a reason to join the Dark Fool." he said, looking at the door as it slid open.

Ron stared at the bushy haired girl he and Harry had met earlier. "Can we help you with something?" he asked her.

"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there."

Ron stared at her when she didn't leave. "Would you mind leaving while we change?" he asked, scowling.

Fallen and Tarana exchanged amused expressions. He was trying too hard.

"All right-I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors." said Hermione in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"

Ron glared at her as she left, trying to ignore Fallen and Draco's snickering and Tarana's amused blue eyes.

Harry glanced at Draco before the three took off their jackets and slipped on their robes Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his sneakers underneath them.

Fallen stared at the three before turning to Tarana.

"**When will they stop making these children wear this crap?"** he asked.

Tarana smirked. **"There was a time when you would wear something similar."**

Fallen muttered something to Draco, who snickered.

---

A few minutes later, a voice echoed through the train.

"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes time. Please leave your luggage on the train. It will be taken to the school separately."

Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and Ron, he saw, was pale under his freckles.

Draco strode through the door calmly, Fallen on his heels.

Harry and Ron crammed the last of the sweets into their pockets and followed Draco, Fallen, and Tarana into the crowd of disembarking students.

People pushed their way toward the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air.

Then a lamp came bobbing into view over the heads of the students, followed by a familiar voice to Harry and Draco:

"Firs' years! Firs' years, over here! All right there, Harry? Malfoy?"

Hagrid's big hairy face beamed at the two over the sea of heads. "C'mon, follow me-any more firs' years? Mind yer step now! Firs' years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side, that Harry thought there must be thick trees there.

Nobody spoke much.

Neville, a boy who Harry and Ron had met on the train, sniffled once or twice, as he had, apparently, yet to find his missing toad, Trevor.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec." Hagrid called over his shoulder. "Jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Ohhh" to which Draco and a boy behind them snorted.

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

Hagrid's voice, combined with a jab to his side by Draco, caused Harry tore his eyes away from the castle to the lake.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of small boats sitting in the water by the shore.

Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Draco and the black haired boy, who introduced himself as Blaise Zabini, Draco looked at him in clear recognition.

"Everyone in?" Hagrid called, Harry noticed that he had a boat to himself. "Right then-FORWARD!"

---

As the boats stared off, Fallen and Tarana found themselves once more facing off with Yoko.

The fox was on guard, but didn't seem as hostile towards them as on the train.

"**My chosen told me that you apologized to me. Why?"** Yoko asked, he was clearly curious and confused.

Fallen scoffed. **"Because I was sorry."** He stated, as if it explained everything

Yoko rolled his eyes. **"For what?" **

Tarana tilted her head, amused and curious.

'**Fallen? Apologize? That's a first.'** Alex muttered.

"_**Hush Alex. Let them speak."**_ she said quietly.

"**Because I didn't mean to attack you…. However, you attacked Tarana, and I couldn't let that go."**

"**To which I still don't understand why. I made no hostile moves towards you or your charge."** Tarana said, speaking for the first time.

Yoko looked away. **"I'm sorry. My chosen wasn't brought up in the best of households. Drunk, death eater father…. I've gotten used to attacking before I question things."**

Fallen stepped forward, and Yoko took a step back, but Fallen continued to advance, and he stopped, holding his ground and watching every move the other made in tense silence.

Fallen blinked twice, curling around Yoko's smaller body, offering what comfort he could, seemingly completely ignorant of the fox's distressed tensing.

Tarana smiled to herself.

"**We won't harm him, Yoko."** Fallen promised, nuzzling the fox's ear gently.

Yoko looked up at him and then over at Tarana as memories slowly began to leech through the wall that had held them back for so long.

Tarana nodded, blue eyes glowing as she watched her generals interact. As clear recognition began to draw itself through Yoko's eyes and body language.

Yoko was silent, contemplating his answer to the unspoken question even as his memory finished putting itself back into place.

Looking back up at Fallen, he whispered, **"Okay."**

There was a cacophony of victorious noise from beside the forest, as the Guardians, for the first time in years, fell in on the same side.

**---**

At the same time Tarana, Fallen, and Yoko began to glow, black, red, and green respectively, Hagrid was knocking on the doors of Hogwarts; all were oblivious to the faint glow in Draco, Blaise, and Harry's eyes.


	7. TheSortingHat and Dumbledoremeets thereu

This Chapter was Revised 8/24/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Seven: The Sorting Hat and Dumbledore Meets the Reunited Guardians**_

A tall, black haired witch in emerald-green robes, stood where the doors had been. She had a stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall." Hagrid said.

She opened the door wider. "Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

Harry looked around.

The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of the Dursleys' house in it. The stonewalls were lit with flaming torches like the ones Harry had seen at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

Just like the outside, the inside of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry lent a magnificent and mysterious air to the new students.

The first years followed McGonagall across the flagged stone floor.

Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right, so the rest of the school must already be here, but McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in; standing much closer together than they would have usually done and peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses.

"The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The Four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose.

Harry looked around as the doors closed behind her. "Hey…where're Tarana and Fallen?" he asked.

Draco shrugged. "Fallen disappears whenever he feels like it. I still think he and Tarana had something in the past." he muttered.

Blaise blinked at them both. "Are you two talking about a black panther and a red wolf?" he asked.

Harry and Draco nodded, eyeing the other carefully to judge just how much should be spoken.

"I know for a fact that the wolf didn't have anything with the panther." he told them. Draco raised a brow curiously, and Blaise blushed lightly as he remembered. "He kind of kissed my Guardian."

Draco thought back to Diagon Alley. "Fallen said that he'd had a lover, and that he waited to see him again."

Blaise shrugged. "Guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other won't we." he said with a small smile.

Harry grinned and Draco nodded.

"But that still doesn't explain where they are?"

Harry shrugged. "They can take care of themselves. Now, how are we sorted?" he asked, spotting Ron staring at them, and chose a topic that the red head could join in on.

Ron shrugged. "I dunno. Fred said it was a test and that it hurt a lot, but I think he was joking."

Draco smirked slightly, amused at how much fun the two elder Weasleys appeared to have at their younger brother's expense. "He was. Just need to wear a hat." he said, as McGonagall walked back in.

---

The four had completely missed the scene that went on behind them, a group of ghosts flew through the wall, one, the Bloody Baron, paused to stare at Harry and his friends before following after the others, Hogwarts was about to get even more interesting than usual.

---

"Form a line," McGonagall told the first years. "And follow me."

Harry got into line behind Blaise, with Ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place.

It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets.

At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students with the teachers behind them.

The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, ghosts shone misty silver.

Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars.

He absently heard Hermione whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in _Hogwarts, A History_."

It was hard to believe that there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens above them.

Harry quickly looked down again as McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years.

On top of the stool, she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched, frayed, and extremely dirty.

He absently noted that Petunia wouldn't have let it into the house.

For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched, and a rip near the brim opened wide, like a mouth, and the hat began to sing:

_Oh you may not think I'm pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see.  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,  
Your top hats sleek and tall,  
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,  
Where dwell the brave at heart,  
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  
Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
Where they are just and loyal,  
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
If you've a ready mind,  
Where those of wit and learning,  
Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin  
You'll make your real friends,  
Those cunning folks use any means  
To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
And don't get in a flap!  
You're in safe hands, (though I have none)  
For I'm a Thinking Cap!_

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.

Ron whispered something in Harry's ear, that he vaguely managed to make out, but didn't answer.

McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said.

"Abbott, Hannah!"

A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause-

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!" the table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.

"Granger, Hermione!"

Hermione almost ran to the stool and eagerly jammed the hat on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat.

Ron groaned beside Harry, and he managed a weak smile at his friend's expense.

_What if I'm not chosen? What if I just sit there with the hat over my eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall takes it off and-_

Harry would have continued, had a pleasant, warm feeling not passed through his body.

Draco walked forward calmly when his name was called.

He got his wish.

The hat sat on his head for little more than a minute or two, than it shouted something that made Katelyn Malfoy's mouth drop nearly to the floor.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Ron stared at Draco as the boy walked quite calmly, despite all the eyes on him, towards the Gryffindor table.

Katelyn also got her wish.

The hat had barely touched her head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"

She shot a glare at her apparently 'traitorous' cousin, before joining her 'friends' Crabbe and Goyle.

A little while later, Harry's name was called.

As he stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

It took all of Harry's considerable acting to ignore them.

The last thing he saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him.

Next second, he was looking at the inside of the hat.

He waited in patient silence.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes-and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting….So where to put you?"

Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, _Not Slytherin, not Slytherin._

"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "As you wish. GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. He took off the hat and walked shakily toward the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Draco, who smirked at him.

"Alright there Harry?" he asked.

Harry glared slightly at him, but nodded.

He ignored Fred and George, who were yelling "We got Potter! We got Potter!" at the top of their lungs.

Harry looked up at the High Table. He could see it properly now.

At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him the thumbs up.

Harry grinned back.

And there at the center of the Table in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognized him at once from the card he'd gotten from the Chocolate Frog on the train.

Not far down the line, was another familiar face, although he couldn't quite place it.

A man in a turban.

Mentally shrugging, he turned back to the sorting. There were only four people left to be sorted now.

Dean Thomas became a Gryffindor, Lisa Turpin became a Ravenclaw, and then it was Ron's turn.

He was a pale green color.

Harry crossed his fingers under the table, ignoring the snort that came from Draco and a second later, the hat had shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry and Draco, who had to admit, if only to himself and the pesky wolf Guardian that he shared a partial mind with, the Weasley boy was growing on him, clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair on his other side.

Harry and Draco both gasped near silently, as the warm feeling from before passed through them both, and looking up, they saw that Blaise was being sorted.

The two exchanged curious expressions.

Blaise closed his eyes, hoping against all hope that the hat wouldn't put him in Slytherin.

It was the last place he wanted to be now that he'd found friends, and both were in Gryffindor. Warmth raced through his veins and he unconsciously relaxed, the tension flowing out of his shoulders.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted.

And Blaise let out a quiet sigh of relief, as he went and sat beside a ghost wearing a ruff and tights. He timidly returned the smile that Harry, Draco, and Ron gave him, and turned his attention to the High Table with the rest of the Hall.

Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you."

Food appeared on the table and conversations began.

Only to be stopped as the door began to glow a deep red and began to creak open.

Harry and his new friends smirked slightly.

It seemed the Guardians all had something in common.

A flashy entrance.

Dumbledore stood slowly as the doors opened and Tarana led Fallen and Yoko in, on her right and left respectively.

She glanced around and smirked when she saw that the three charges had all been sorted into the same house.

They three chosen noted that there wasn't a hint of surprise on any of their faces.

"May I ask, who you are?" Dumbledore's voice rang through the quiet that had descended on the Hall.

Tarana smirked. **"Do you truly not remember me, Albus? Perhaps I should feel offended."** Tarana told him, and Dumbledore's eyes widened, before he relaxed a bit.

"Ah, Tarana. It has been what, almost 10 and a half years since I last saw you. Longer since I saw the three of you together. I assume that you are here for your charges then." Dumbledore stated, walking around the High Table to bow to the three.

The three Guardians nodded to him, and Yoko and Fallen split off, walking around the room to meet behind their charges, sitting silently and watching the reunion.

Dumbledore straightened and he called attention to the students once more. "Students, it seems that our school will be hosting Guardians to the school, as with familiars, I must insist that you do not provoke them, as the Ministry of Magic has no hold over them and therefore, anything they do to you cannot be punished." He smiled and returned his seat. "Let the feast continue."

Tarana calmly walked to her charge's side and slid under the table beneath him, ice blue eyes watched every move made in the hall.

Feeling slightly safer, Harry and Blaise participated more in the conversations.

Beneath the table, Tarana continued to find her gaze drawn to the Weasley boy. For what reason, she wasn't sure yet, but something about that family seemed to be calling to her senses, just as the Malfoys and Zabinis did.

---

Harry could hear Percy Weasley and Hermione Granger talking about lessons on his other side and picked up a bowl that had appeared with the deserts and most of the Gryffindor's eyes followed him as he placed it on the ground behind him.

Tarana blinked, eyes widening in surprise at what she saw in it. A slow smirk fell on her lips and she glanced at Fallen and Yoko, both of whom found the challenge in her eyes.

"**Only if it's a two on one. You'd kick our asses Tarana."** Yoko said with a smile.

Tarana nodded, agreeing to the terms.

Harry exchanged an amused look with Draco and Blaise and the four went back to eating, ignoring the three guardians that left the hall.

"Bets?" Draco asked.

Harry shook his head, but Blaise put in three Galleons on Tarana.

"We all know she didn't get to be the Queen of Guardians by laying around." he said when Harry looked at him in surprise.

Harry nodded, acknowledging the truth.

He'd heard about that over the summer.

Tarana and another had ruled over their dimension/world. Something took over, Tarana never came out about what happened to the other who ruled with her, but it was clear that she had very deep feelings for him. They had been demons once, until they took on the form of animals to watch over wizards as their world crashed around them.

According to Tarana, over the years, they'd probably forgotten how to change back. Eventually, their animal forms had developed minds, the Panther's was Alex, and quite often they would speak as one, calling themselves 'we'. He often made the connection the Egyptians he learned about in what he was now coming to call 'muggle school', who's Pharaoh's often did the same. It was amusing to the Panther Guardian, as she stated that she and her kind were older than any civilization on Earth.

Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy by now, stopped the thoughts about his Guardian's past as the three returned, Tarana moving to the bowl behind Harry.

Blaise smirked and took the nine galleons on the table between himself and Draco.

Draco was too busy snickering at the look Fallen was giving Tarana, to complain about his loss.

Yoko wasn't faring much better than the wizard.

Fallen glared at the both of them before curling up behind Draco, licking one of the healing gashes on his leg.

Harry smiled down at his Guardian, unaware of the piercing gaze of the Headmaster from the High Table.

Once Tarana finished the meat from god-knows-what, she turned her gaze to the High Table and spotted a familiar figure.

Tilting her head, Alex gave her the answer she was searching for.

'**The man from the Leaky Cauldron. The blank one.'**

Tarana's eyes narrowed on him and she stood, walking to the twins. **"Who is the teacher in the turban?"** she asked them, and the two stopped their plotting to look up at her.

"That's Professor Quirrell. He's the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. They say he met vampires in the Black Forest and there was some trouble with a hag." Fred said.

George nodded. "Rumor has it that he puts garlic in his turban to ward off the vampire."

Tarana's eyes narrowed further. _**'That's not the scent of garlic.'**_ she told Alex.

The twins went back to their plotting and Tarana moved to the other two Guardians. Both of whom looked up at her as she approached.

"**What?"** Fallen asked, slightly irritably, Tarana understood that, the wolf never took losing easily.

Tarana looked at him and then Quirrell. **"Something's not right with that teacher. Keep your eyes open."** she said.

"**What makes you say that?"** Yoko asked.

Tarana turned from the teacher. **"I passed him in Diagon Alley. I got nothing. Blank. No thoughts or emotions. Nothing."**

Fallen and Yoko both looked up at the High Table, a slow smirk falling on Fallen's features.

"**Well, I can tell you that he's talking to our old Death Eater friend."** he said, and

Tarana followed his gaze. A smirk fell on her features as well.

"**The double agent. Severus Snape. Wonder if he's still good at Potions."** Yoko said.

Tarana chuckled. **"He probably won't be happy to see me. I helped James and the others far too many times with their pranks to earn anything as a friend. Despite that James and I saved his life."**

Fallen and Yoko stared at her. **"You helped a death eater?"**

Tarana snorted. **"He wasn't a death eater at the time. He was a sixth year. I highly doubt that's what he wanted to be at that particular point in his life."**

Yoko snickered.

"**Well, for now, he's nothing but Draco's godfather."** Fallen said, stopping all teasing on the man as all eyes turned to him. **"Draco will push that his godfather is trustworthy. Other than the obviousness of him being a double agent, I agree with him. Severus doesn't do much outside of his own gain, however, Draco is as close to a son as he is going to get."**

"**And of course, there is the other reason."** Tarana added, watching Snape through half lidded blue eyes.

Fallen hummed in agreement, laying his head back down and returning to surveying the Great Hall.

---

Harry had let his eyes travel to the odd teacher in the turban, who was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.

It happened very suddenly.

The hook-nosed teacher looked past the turban-wearing teacher and straight into Harry's eyes-and sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead.

"Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head.

"What is it?" asked Percy, looking down the table at him.

"N-nothing."

Tarana looked at him. _**"Are you alright?"**_

Harry shook his head. The pain had gone as quickly as it had come.

Harder to shake off was the feeling that Harry got when he was looked at-a feeling of utter loathing.

"Who's that teacher?" he asked Fallen, who was still perched behind Draco, the closest Guardian to him at the moment.

Fallen followed his gaze to the High Table, not at all surprised at the teacher in question. **"Talking to Quirrell? Snape. Potions teacher as far as we can tell."** the wolf answered.

Harry turned back to the table.

Fred, who had heard the question and the answer given, added "It's a well known fact that he's after Quirrell's job though."

By this time, the desserts had disappeared, and Dumbledore stood again.

The hall fell silent.

"Ahem-just a few more words now that we're all fed and watered. I have few start-of-term notices to give you." he looked around at the students and noticed that the three Guardians were staring at his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, but shrugged it off.

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all students. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Tarana and Dumbledore both looked at the Weasley twins, who innocently put a hand on their chests, as if offended.

Tarana snorted in amusement, and returned her gaze to the turbaned professor.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year; the third-floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to all students unless they want to die a most painful death."

Harry, Draco, Blaise and Ron exchanged looks, while the three Guardians did the same, Tarana and Fallen shared a secret, knowing smirk.

"Now, bedtime. Off you trot."

The Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase.

Tarana and the Guardians followed their charges, growling quietly at anyone who came too close.

Percy led them twice through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet.

Tarana's ear twitched and she and the Guardians left their charge's side just as they came to a sudden halt.

Tarana chuckled as she spotted the bundle of floating walking sticks. **"Peeves."** she whispered. **"Hogwarts poltergeist. If you will, Peeves."**

There was a loud, rude sound, like the air being blown out of a balloon, was her answer.

In response, Fallen and Yoko snarled, advancing forward on the floating walking sticks, coming from either side as if to hem the poltergeist in, an physical impossibility.

There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks, a fearful frown on his otherwise uncaring face.

"**Apologize, fool. Or I will make sure that the Baron is the least of your worries."** Fallen growled out.

"I apologize your wickedness." Peeves said, bowing to Tarana before dropping the walking sticks on poor Neville's head.

"**You'll want to watch out for Peeves. As far as we know, the Bloody Baron is the only one who can fully control him."** Yoko muttered, walking past the students to stand beside Blaise, who knelt to run his fingers behind the fox's ears. Yoko purred slightly and Blaise picked him up.

Fallen fell into step beside Draco and Harry.

---

Tarana didn't move from where she was as the Gryffindors continued down the hallway, her senses were screaming at her. Although she wasn't sure what it meant. Alex was of no help, he didn't recognize the feeling, had never felt it. For Tarana, it was more of a distant memory. Something she hadn't felt in a long time. Looking around, she shivered slightly, but finding nothing, she moved on.

She didn't see the glowing amber eyes behind her disappear back into the shadows.

---

At the very end of the corridor, a familiar portrait of an obese woman in a pink silk dress hung on the wall. Tarana stopped before it, her tail swinging in idle contentment, even as the bond stretched and Harry reached out for her, and was unsurprised when the fat lady turned to look at her.

"Password?" she asked.

Tarana smiled slightly at the familiarity of the words. **"I am unaware of the new password, Gryffindor Guardian."**

The Fat Lady blinked and smiled wide. "Lady Tarana is that you?"

Tarana's smile widened.

"**Indeed."** she said. **"And my charge is beyond you. Is it possible that you may let me through?"**

The Fat Lady nodded and waved a hand dismissively. "Of course, Lady Tarana. And for future reference, the password is 'Caput Draconis'." she said as she swung open, revealing the Gryffindor common room.

Again, the familiarity washed over her. She padded silently up the stairs into the first years dormitory, a flash of her magic and the door opened, making the students inside it gasp, although it died on the chosen and Ron's lips as Tarana entered the room and with a flick of her tail had the door closed again. She padded in silence to the window and leaped up to it, lying down with her head facing the room, her tail continued to sway and Harry was quickly finding himself amused at how the thing seemed to be an easy gauge of her moods.

Fallen and Yoko lay at the foot of their charge's beds, watchful eyes on the students in the room.

"**Rest, children. You are safe."** Tarana murmured, and the familiar comment sent Harry into dreamland.


	8. The Potions Master

This Chapter was Revised 8/25/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Eight: The Potions Master**_

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to the tall kid with red hair."

"Wearing glasses?"

"Did you see his face?"

"Did you see his scar?"

Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day, something that made Draco, Blaise, and their Guardians snicker.

People lined up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring.

Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to class. Or at least keep up with Tarana, who it seemed naturally knew her way around the school, and was easily leading him to classes.

Fallen had paused to advance on Peeves, as he tormented a Hufflepuff first year, and had been thanked profusely despite that Fallen had only done it because as much as Peeves enjoyed tormenting the students and faculty, _he_ enjoyed tormenting Peeves.

Something that for some reason Draco found incredibly ironic.

However, to Harry, Ron, and Blaise, even worse than Peeves, if it was possible, was the caretaker.

Argus Filch.

It seemed to them as if he was intentionally trying to get them into trouble. Something that made Yoko chase his cat, Mrs. Norris, around the entrance hall that morning at breakfast.

Yoko had been treated to anything he wanted at breakfast that morning by the Weasley twins for that particular stunt.

Then there were the classes themselves.

They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch named Sprout, someone that Yoko got along with easily, as his elemental power revolved around plants and the earth.

Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. From what Tarana told them, Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up the next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns would drone on and on while they scribbled down notes.

Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class, he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name, he gave an excited squeak and toppled off the chair.

Draco and Ron had teased Harry mercilessly for that.

McGonagall was again different.

Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

She than proceeded to changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all impressed, save perhaps the Guardians, and couldn't wait to get started.

The class that everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke.

Fallen, Tarana, and Yoko were the only ones to notice the underlying scent beneath the strong garlic smell, one that they were still unable to place.

"What have we got today?" Harry asked at breakfast.

Ron groaned. "Double Potions with the Slytherins." he told Harry.

"Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favors them-we'll be able to see if it's true."

Draco swallowed the toast he'd been chewing. "It is. Snape often favors his own house over the others." he informed them.

"Wish McGonagall would favor us." Blaise mumbled.

McGonagall was head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.

As Harry, Blaise, and Draco were giving the bowls of strange smelling meat to their Guardians, the mail arrived.

Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble on his ear and have a bit of the meat in Tarana's bowl before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls.

This morning however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Harry's plate. Harry tore it open at once. It said in a very untidy scrawl that Harry recognized from the hut on the rock over the summer, as Hagrid's:

_Dear Harry and Draco,_

_I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig._

_Hagrid_

Harry borrowed Ron's quill and scribbled _Yes, please, see you later_ on the back of the note and with a piece of bacon, sent Hedwig off again.

It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him so far.

At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, it appeared that he'd been wrong.

Snape didn't dislike Harry.

He _hated_ him.

Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. This would also be the first class that the three chosen would be going to class without their Guardians, as the three had been asked to see Dumbledore that morning, to much swearing and unhappiness abounds.

Snape, like Flitwick started class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.

"Ah yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new-_celebrity._"

Draco scowled at his godfather, but it went as ignored as Katelyn and her friends, Crabbe and Goyle's, muffled laughter.

Snape finished calling the names of his students, and looked up at the class.

His eyes were black like Hagrid's but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made Harry think of dark tunnels.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making." he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word. Like McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring senses…. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death…if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

More silence followed his little speech.

Harry and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows.

Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat behind them, and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

_Powdered root of what to an infusion of what?_ Harry glanced at Ron, who sat next to him looking as stumped as he was.

"I don't know sir." said Harry.

Snape's lips curled into a sneer. "Tut, tut-fame clearly isn't everything." He ignored Hermione's hand. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Katelyn, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter, although he could feel Draco glaring at the three of them.

"I don't know sir."

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand.

"What's the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfs bane?" At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling.

"I don't know sir." Harry murmured politely, despite the simmering desire to slam the book on his desk into the man's large nose.

Snape sneered again, but a quiet growl stopped his voice and his eyes widened.

Harry looked past him and Snape spun around.

Tarana stood on Snape's desk, growling, and her eyes blood red, the papers spread across the professor's desk swirled at her feet and sparks caught the eyes of those around her, snapping at the air.

"**Enough is enough Severus." **She whispered dangerously.** "Write this down, brats. Asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save humans from most poisons. Monkshood and Wolfsbane are the same plant and also goes by the name of aconite."** she continued to stare at Snape who was shaking by now, though Harry was absolutely positive that it wasn't because he was terrified of the panther Guardian standing on his desk, almost at eye level with him. **"All of this is in Chapters 12-14 of Magical Drafts and Potions. No first year, muggle raised student would know and remember this, Severus, as you know well enough. Do **_**NOT**_** torment my charge because he is James' son."**

Snape nodded slowly.

Tarana looked around, spotting the glaring Katelyn and smirked, her eyes darkened to a deeper red and the girl was lifted well out of her seat. **"Continue to laugh at the expense of others, and when I'm through showing you what _I_ find funny, I will make sure that what is left of you, is hand wrapped for Fallen's use as bait for his next Hunt."** she snarled viciously, as her eyes returned to icy blue and Katelyn fell back into her seat, glaring coldly, but shivering.

Tarana stared back at Snape, neither moving for several minutes. The students stared at the two, as the battle of wills continued.

"**Sit down Granger."** came Fallen's annoyed growl, and the Gryffindor dropped back into her seat quickly, blushing brightly.

Tarana broke the staring contest with the professor and calmly jumped from the desk, purposefully scattering papers in her wake. As she passed Snape, she whispered. _**"I would have thought better of you, after James saved your life."**_

---

As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon after the class, Ron and the Gryffindors were all looking at the three Guardians with even more respect.

Draco looked sadly at Harry. "I'm sorry." he whispered.

Harry looked at him confused. "Why?"

Draco smiled sadly. "Severus is my godfather. I've never seen him so cruel though." He idly began to run his fingers over the coarse fur behind Fallen's ears as they walked up the stairs.

Ron and Blaise had quietly been conversing while watching the two, and now, Ron spoke up. "Hey, can we come visit Hagrid with you?" he asked.

---

At five to three, the seven left the castle, four going to Hagrid's house at the edge of the forbidden forest and the three Guardians to hunt inside it.

When Harry knocked, they heard a frantic scrambling from inside and several booming barks that made the four boys look at each other nervously.

Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying "Back Fang-_back_." Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as the door was pulled open. "Hang on," he said. "_Back_ Fang."

He let the four of them in and Draco eyed the enormous black boarhound with wariness.

There was only one room inside.

Blaise winced at the hams and pheasants that were hanging from the ceiling, it must have looked unpleasant to the vegetarian chosen.

"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bound straight at Ron and started licking his face.

Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.

"This is Ron Weasley and Blaise Zabini." Harry introduced, as Hagrid poured boiling water into a large teapot and put Rock cakes onto a plate.

"Another Weasley, eh?" Hagrid said, glancing at Ron's freckles. "I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest."

The boys politely pretended to be enjoying the Rock cakes, as they had been forewarned of Hagrid's cooking skills…or lack thereof, by a much amused Tarana.

They spent the next few hours telling Hagrid about their lessons. Fang rested his head on Ron's robes and drooled on them until Blaise pushed him off, finding that Ron wouldn't, shooting a disgusted glare at the drool.

Harry, Ron, and Draco were delighted when Hagrid called Filch 'that old git.'

"An' as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like to introduce her to Fang sometime. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her-Filch puts her up to it."

Harry and Draco told Hagrid about Snape's lesson, with Blaise and Ron adding in parts that they'd missed or found unimportant.

Hagrid told him not to worry about it, and that Snape and Tarana had their reasons for acting the way they did. Hagrid then turned to Ron, asking about Charlie.

Meanwhile, Draco had noticed an article on the table. It was from the Daily Prophet.

_GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST_

_Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown._

_Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day._

"_But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you." said a Gringotts spokes goblin this afternoon._

Draco gently kicked Harry under the table and showed him the article.

Harry read it over, remembering that Ron had told him something about it on the train. He hadn't mentioned the date. "Hagrid!" he said, as Draco took the article back. "That Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday. It might've been happening while we were there."

There was no doubt in Draco's mind that the giant didn't meet his friend's eyes when he grunted in answer.

The article flashed behind Harry's eyes.

_The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day._

Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking that package. Had that been what the thieves were after?

Tarana, Fallen, and Yoko were spread on the lawn when the boys walked out of Hagrid's hut, apparently soaking up the afternoon sun. They looked for all the world like the animals they masqueraded as.

As they walked back up to the castle, Harry couldn't help but think that of all the lessons so far, tea with Hagrid had given him the most to think about.

---

Beside him, Tarana watched as the wheels of fate drew her chosen into his first mystery at Hogwarts, and pondered about how much she could change, without changing his destiny.


	9. Duel at Midnight and Tarana's Past Lover

This Chapter was Revised 8/25/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Nine: Duel at Midnight and Tarana's Past Lover**_

Harry never thought that he'd find someone he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he'd met Katelyn Malfoy.

Still, first-year Gryffindors only had Potions with the Slytherins, so Harry, Ron, Draco, and Blaise didn't have to deal with Draco's annoyance of a cousin too much.

Or at least, they didn't until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Gryffindor common room that made them all groan.

Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday-and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.

'Typical.' Harry confided to Tarana. 'Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Kate.'

Tarana only smiled sympathetically at him. She knew that her charge had been looking forward to learning how to fly more than anything.

'_**You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself.'**_she said to him. _**'Draco's talking to you dear.'**_

Harry blinked and noticed that Draco was looking at him with an amused expression. "What?"

Ron and Blaise chuckled.

"I asked if you were nervous." Draco smirked.

"A bit." Harry said, glancing at Tarana.

"I bet Kate's all talk." Ron said, trying to cheer up his friend.

Tarana, Fallen, and Draco exchanged worried and dubious looks.

---

At breakfast on Thursday, a barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

"**It's a Remembrall."** Yoko said, his eyes glittering in the light that reflected off the Remembrall. **"It tells you if there's something you've forgotten. You hold it tightly and the white smoke turns red."** he explained.

"How did you…?"

The Guardians laughed.

"**Yoko used to be one of the most, famous, feared, and skilled thieves in our world. If anyone knows things that glitter, it's him."** Tarana told them, as the orb in Neville's hand turned red.

Fallen and Draco snickered quietly as Neville tried to remember what he'd forgotten.

Tarana and Yoko stood as Katelyn Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand and twirled it between her fingers, ignoring the three vicious growls that came from the three not-animals.

McGonagall, desperate to keep the three students safe most likely, arrived. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor."

Scowling, Katelyn dropped the Remembrall back on the table. "Just looking." she said, and she walked away with Crabbe and Goyle.

**"'Just looking', my ass."** Fallen muttered, ignoring McGonagall's vicious glare.

---

At three thirty that afternoon, the Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson.

It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they moved down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, where the trees were swaying darkly in the distance.

The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground.

Harry had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.

Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived, making sure that the two houses were unable to even begin arguing.

---

Tarana, Fallen, and Yoko watched from various levels of the forest, their superior eyesight making even the animal's sight good enough that they could see the children perfectly.

They watched as Ron's broom hit him in the nose, to which Fallen laughed unashamedly.

However, Yoko and Tarana spotted Neville's twitching throughout the entirety of the lesson, and didn't need to be seers to know what was going to occur before it happened, and the three shot from the forest towards the group of children almost four football fields away.

'_**He's too nervous.'**_ Yoko murmured hurriedly, his eyes on Neville, not in the least bit concerned with the terrain.

He was proven correct, when Neville shot into the air before the whistle sounded.

As the three Guardians approached, multiple people, their chosen among them, called out for them to help the boy.

Blaise vaguely noticed that the Slytherins were enjoying it. As Neville approached the ground, Tarana and Yoko ran past the kids, eyes black as they called on their elemental magic. Fallen bound into one of the three trees that stood nearby, running easily to the top.

Vines shot from the ground, twinning as the broom instinctively avoided the objects in its path.

Tarana's black flames twisted through the air, both driving the broom, and consequently Neville, towards the tree where just as it was going to crash, was knocked from the air and, concentration broken and energy spent, Fallen headed for the ground as well.

The broom headed towards the forbidden forest, but Fallen and Neville were falling. Tarana's eyes slid from black to red and the two slowed.

Almost three stories from the ground, Tarana collapsed, her eyes unfocused.

Yoko didn't have the energy to pick up the slack and the two fell the remaining feet.

Fallen struggled to his feet, but Neville was moaning on the ground.

Hooch was by his side in an instant.

Yoko could feel Tarana's body shutting down beside him, just before he passed out. Tarana fell beside him, her blue eyes half lidded as she fought the exhaustion that using her elemental magic had caused.

Fallen, with the help of Draco and Ron, made it to their side and collapsed beside Yoko, also falling into unconsciousness, projecting a final message to the other two just before he collapsed.

'_**We're going to need practice.'**_

---

Hooch warned the group that she'd have them expelled if they so much as lifted off the ground as she escorted Neville to the Infirmary.

No sooner was the professor out of sight, did Katelyn burst into laughter.

"Did you see his face, the great lump?" she asked.

The other Slytherins joined in, some of them, Blaise noticed, almost halfheartedly.

"Shut up, Kate." Draco snapped, almost immediately, the majority of the Slytherin house fell silent and stepped back, clearing a path between the two cousins.

"Oooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" Pansy Parkinson sneered. "Never thought that _you'd_ like fat little crybabies, Draco."

Draco narrowed his eyes, which made him look just as dangerous as his wolf guardian. Pansy flinched and looked away from him. It was obvious to those who knew the Slytherin polotics, that Draco, despite being a Lion, still had a great deal of control in the rival House.

"Look!" Katelyn said, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."

Harry's eyes widened at the glittering Remembrall. "Give it here, Kate." he said quietly.

Draco, Blaise, and Ron all looked back at him, worried, while the others all watched in anticipation.

Katelyn sneered. "I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find. How about-in a tree?"

Anger that Harry'd been banking, rose to the surface, hovering behind his eyes as he stared unblinkingly at the Slytherin. "Give it _here_!" Harry yelled, but Katelyn was already in the air.

She hadn't been lying.

She could fly well, not that Harry had doubted it.

Hovering level with the top most branches of an oak tree, she called. "Come and get it, Potter."

Harry grabbed his broom.

"No!" Hermione shouted. "Madam Hooch told us not to move-you'll get us all in trouble."

Harry didn't see Blaise restrain her when she moved to touch him, probably out of habit. He had barely registered that she'd spoken. Blood pounding in his ears, he mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground, just as Draco saw Tarana begin to come further into consciousness.

---

Tarana opened her eyes as a feeling of pure joy ran through her, and for a moment, she closed her eyes, basking in it.

However, they shot open again when she realized just _who_ it was coming from.

Curses flowed like dirty water from her 'lips' as she shot straight to consciousness as if on drugs and looked up at the sky, her pupils dilating as she focused on two figures hovering in the air high above the ground.

Harry and Katelyn.

---

Harry turned his broom sharply to face Katelyn in midair.

Katelyn looked stunned.

"Give it here!" Harry yelled. "Or I'll knock you off that broom!"

"Oh yeah?" Katelyn said, attempting to sneer, but looking slightly worried.

Harry knew, thanks to a small voice whispering in the back of his head, what to do. Leaning forward, he shot toward Katelyn.

She got out of the way, but barely.

"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy." he called, smirking.

The same thought seemed to have struck Katelyn.

"Catch it if you can then!" she shouted, throwing the glass ball off to the side as hard as she could, and streaking for the ground.

---

Tarana stood slowly, as Harry dove after the sparkling sphere. Her blue eyes followed his progress. Draco's followed the Remembrall as it fell.

As Harry hit the ground, Tarana ran towards him.

With a soft chuckle, Harry put his hand on her muzzle in gentle reassurance.

Draco was by their sides not long after, helping Harry to his feet. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Harry nodded as a shout rang across the grounds.

"HARRY POTTER!"

Harry's heart sank, but Tarana had a satisfied gleam in her eyes.

"_Never_-in all my time at Hogwarts-" McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, her glasses flashed furiously. "-how dare you-might have broken your neck-"

"But Professor-" Draco started, only to have McGonagall cut him off.

"Be quiet Mr. Malfoy."

"But Kate-" Ron stopped when she glared at him.

"**Watch yourself Professor."** Fallen warned with a soft growl as he came to with Yoko.

Tarana stepped between McGonagall and the two chosen; pleasing Fallen enough not to waste what little energy he had left by standing and attacking the teacher. She could hear Katelyn, Crabbe, and Goyle snickering behind the professor, and worked hard to keep her own amusement hidden.

"Follow me, Potter." McGonagall barked, and Harry and Tarana followed her into the castle.

'**Please tell me you didn't plan this.'** Alex pleaded with Tarana.

She chuckled quietly. **"Not quite. I did plan to have him try out, but not until next year. When I'm sure he can handle everything."** she answered quietly so the two humans didn't hear her.

Alex sighed. **'So you're just going to let this continue?'**

"**Yes."** Tarana told him, noticing that McGonagall had stopped outside a classroom.

"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?"

Harry blinked in confusion.

'_**He's human, Harry.'**_ Tarana said in amusement, watching a light flush spread over the boy's cheeks.

As she said this, a burly fifth year boy came out of Flitwick's class, looking wary and confused.

"Follow me." McGonagall told them.

Tarana's eyes flashed for a moment, but she followed without comment. She watched as Wood eyed her charge, giving off a sharp snarl to dissuade him, but she saw that he still watched out of the corner of his eye, and she let loose a slow rumbling of displeasure.

In the classroom, Tarana let her eyes wonder the room before landing on Peeves, who scurried away quickly.

McGonagall gave her a grateful smile, which was returned only by a cold look in the panther's eyes, one that Harry recognized as her calculating, hunting expression.

With amusement, he realized that, so far, it was the only expression that she wore around Dudley.

"Potter, Lady Tarana, this is Oliver Wood. Wood-I've found you a Seeker."

Wood's expression changed from puzzlement and wariness to delight. "Are you serious Professor?"

"Absolutely. The boy's a natural. I've never seen anything like it. Was that your first time on a broomstick, Potter?"

Harry nodded, and silently stared at her.

Well, silent outwardly anyways.

'Tarana?' he said nervously.

Tarana growled sharply and both McGonagall and Wood turned to her, Wood a nervous expression on his face.

"**If you're going to speak about my charge, attempt to at least make it seem like he's in the room. You might want to start by explaining just what you're going on about."**

McGonagall bowed in apology. "We apologize, Lady Tarana. You must understand, we haven't had a decent team in quite some time. Years, most likely since Charlie Weasley left the school."

Tarana snorted. **"I don't care. Think of it as the only warning you'll get before I take off something you may need in the future."**

Wood swallowed, and pushed away his nervousness, showing outwardly only confidence and consideration.

He circled Tarana and Harry, ever wary of the Guardian's eyes.

"He's the right build for a Seeker."

Harry continued to look clueless.

Tarana recognized something hidden in the boy's gaze, something that only angered Alex's protective instincts towards his 'cub'.

'**Tarana, he still doesn't know. Get them to explain it.'**

Tarana growled quietly and Wood stopped, taking a step back as she leveled him with her emotionless gaze.

"**Who the fuck are you?"** she asked bluntly.

McGonagall looked appalled, while Wood looked slight stunned, having never heard anyone take the tone inside the school, and Harry looked mildly amused.

Wood turned his stare back to Harry and didn't answer, but the shred of something was back, and Alex snarled.

"Oliver Wood is the Gryffindor team captain."

Alex muttered darkly. **'He may end up in the way.'** he warned darkly.

Tarana kept narrowed eyes on Wood as she answered. **"Indeed he will."**

All eyes turned to her, and Harry blinked. "Tarana…?"

Wood watched the black panther.

It was obvious that his attraction to his potential Seeker had been spotted and she'd do everything in her power to keep the relationship friendly at best.

'_**Keep away from the Boy. He is destined for another.'**_ she projected as McGonagall warned Harry to work hard.

A howl came from outside, the direction of the forest. McGonagall and Wood turned to the window with curious, slightly worried eyes.

Tarana moved closer to Harry, growling quietly so as no one would hear it.

'**Dark has arrived.'**

Tarana said nothing, only followed her charge out the door.

---

"You're joking." Draco exclaimed.

Harry had just finished telling his friends what had happened when he left the grounds with Tarana and McGonagall.

Ron had a piece of steak and kidney pie halfway to his mouth, but it seemed he'd forgotten about it.

"_Seeker_!" Ron said.

"But first years _never_-you must be the youngest house player in about -"

"A century." Harry interrupted Blaise, while shoveling pie into his mouth. He felt particularly hungry after the excitement of the afternoon. "Wood told me."

Ron was so amazed that he just sat and gaped at Harry.

"I start training next week." Harry added. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."

Blaise elbowed Ron, causing the pie to fall off his fork. He scowled at the snickering culprit.

Fred and George now came into the hall, spotted Harry and hurried over. "Well done." said George, in a low voice. "Wood told us. We're on the team too-Beaters."

---

By the clearing that the students had practiced flying in earlier, Tarana, Yoko, and Fallen clashed.

Fallen's earlier comment about how the three of them needed practice, had been readily agreed to by both Yoko and Tarana. So they were out here, mixing physical attacks, guardian magik, and elemental magic, using little elemental magic. They kept far enough away that the school was oblivious to the sparring match going on, yet close enough that they were able to get there quickly should something happen. Half taunts, half advice flew freely between the three friends.

So focused on one another, they were oblivious as the dark presence slid through the darkness and into the castle, burying itself deep within the school, away from the prying, seeking senses of the Guardians.

---

Back at the school, Katelyn approached the Gryffindor table. "Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the muggles?"

Draco made to stand, but Harry put a hand on his shoulder. "You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you." Harry said coolly.

Katelyn scowled. "I'd take you on anytime on my own." she sneered. "Tonight if you want. Wizard's Duel. Wands only-no contact." She paused, smirking down at Harry. "What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"

"Of course he has," said Ron, wheeling around. "I'm his second, who's yours?"

Katelyn turned to look at Crabbe and Goyle. "Crabbe." she said. "Midnight alright? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."

When Katelyn was gone, Draco slapped Ron upside the head.

Blaise glared at the red head. "What were you thinking?!"

Ron shrugged.

"What's a wizard's duel?" Harry asked, trying to avert his two friends from beating Ron over the head with his own utensils. "And what do you mean, my second?"

As Blaise was busy scolding Ron, hitting him over the head repeatedly, and Ron was too busy protecting his head from Blaise, Draco sighed and was forced to abandon glaring at Ron's head to answer.

"A second's there to take over if you die." he told Harry.

Ron looked up and saw Harry's face. "But people only die in proper duels, you know with real wizards. The most you and Kate'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet she expected you to refuse anyway."

"And what, we're _pretending_ to be real wizards?" Blaise mumbled, making Ron scowl at him.

"Excuse me."

The boys looked up, curious as to who it was that was invading their 'circle'.

Hermione Granger stood over them.

"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" Ron asked.

Hermione ignored him. "I couldn't help overhearing-"

"I bet you could." Ron muttered.

"-and you mustn't go wondering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."

Draco raised a brow. "And it's really none of your business." he told her standing with Blaise, Ron, and Harry following.

"Goodbye." Ron said, waving her off dismissively.

Hermione watched them go, a slightly worried look in her eyes.

---

Much later, as Harry, Ron, Blaise, and Draco were followed around by Hermione and Neville, Tarana's eyes snapped open.

Fallen and Yoko were still passed out from the amount of elemental magic that was used, despite the limit they had put on it to try and prevent such an occurrence.

Shaking her head to wake herself up, she stretched, extending and retracting her claws.

'TARANA!' Harry screamed.

Tarana turned, forgetting about Yoko and Fallen's health in favor of her chosen's. _**'Where are you?'**_ she asked, nothing but a black shadow as she raced across the grounds.

'Third floor. Across from the Forbidden Corridor.' Harry said, his voice was notably relieved. 'Hurry!'

_What the hell are you doing outside of the common room, you idiot?_ She thought as she sprinted up the stairs.

---

Harry, Draco, Blaise, Ron, Hermione, and Neville were currently backing away from a smirking white tiger.

"**The master will be pleased that the chosen were so easily killed. Murdered within the safe haven of their precious school."** the tiger mused.

Hermione shot a set of sparks at it, but it was deflected, the tiger bating the feeble offense away with a single large paw.

The tiger lunged, but a blur of black collided with it, knocking it to the side, where it slammed into the wall and slid to the ground, growling viciously as it got back to its feet.

Tarana skidded to a stop, between the kids and the tiger fangs bared a vicious yowl already echoing down the hallway, but froze when she saw just who she'd attacked.

"**Arcana?"** Tarana breathed.

Arcana growled, shaking his head to clear it. **"Tarana. It's been such a while."**

Tarana was frozen, blue eyes wide as she stood as a barrier between the children and the tiger Guardian.

Arcana's amber eyes trailed over the panther's body. **"You've changed."**

Tarana said nothing, her breathing was growing ragged as, what appeared to be a panic attack, slowly took over her senses.

"**I feel insulted. That you don't remember me."** He spotted the vacant look in her eyes and chuckled, crouching low. **"Or perhaps you do…"**

Tarana's eyes widened and she cried out as Arcana's attack connected with her side, sending her to the ground razor claws drawing blood on the first round.

---

Outside, two pairs of red eyes snapped open.

---

Tarana yowled in pain, her cry echoing around the corridor.

"Tarana!" Harry cried out.

Tarana stood shakily. Her body was battered, but she didn't look weak in the slightest.

Arcana laughed. **"Come on Tarana. Fight back."**

Tarana said nothing, she had taken every attack Arcana threw at her and continued to stand, but she had yet to make any counter attacks.

Arcana's amber eyes flashed red and with a growl, the other tackled her to the ground. His extended claws broke her skin again, and his fangs glinted ominously as he poised over her, ready to tear a large chunk of flesh and fur from her side, which flexed beneath his powerful body.

A roar that didn't come from the panther beneath him broke the corridor.

Arcana turned in time to see a blur of red careen down the corridor.

Just as a flash of green caused him to turn, he was thrown to the ground by the vine that shattered stone and earth to reach the tiger as he rolled and leaped to his feet to avoid the second strike.

"**Tarana!" **Fallen yelled.

Yoko stood, his eyes black as he controlled his element, was standing between Arcana and the children in much the same way that Tarana had just minutes before.

Fallen dodged Arcana's distracted strike, and stopped, growling between the tiger and the bleeding panther. **"Go. Take Tarana with you!"**

Tarana got slowly to her feet. **"No. I can still fight."**

'**Don't be stupid, Tarana. Arcana's kicked your ass up to this point because you **_**won't**_** fight back.'** Alex growled.

Draco began to pull Harry down the corridor towards the Gryffindor Tower. "Come on, Harry. We'll only be in the way." he said.

Harry looked back, wincing as Tarana took a step forward causing blood to trickle from the wounds in her side, and a shallow gash on her stomach.

Tarana's eyes bled red. **"Fallen. I am ordering you to get them back to bed. Leave Arcana to me."**

Fallen stared at her for a moment over his shoulder, aware of Arcana's dangerous smirk and position at all times. **"Alright."** he growled, before turning and jumping over Tarana to land beside Neville. **"Hurry up."** he said, nudging the boy and taking off down the corridor after Harry, Draco, Blaise, and Ron.

"B-But Tarana." Hermione hesitated.

"**Don't underestimate her. Even wounded she can turn this battle around."** Yoko assured her nudging her to get the Gryffindor girl to move faster down the corridor after Neville and the others, passing Fallen who was growling at Mrs. Norris, keeping her from searching Filch out, the wolf looked ready to eat the poor cat when Yoko turned and gently nudged the wolf to continue on down the corridor.

All too soon, the Gryffindors were back at the Fat Lady.

Yoko got them all to bed before he and Fallen slipped back to the third floor corridor.

Tarana lay in a pool of blood, both hers, and the missing white tiger's.


	10. The Troll and Dark

This Chapter was Revised 8/25/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Ten: The Troll and Dark**_

Katelyn couldn't believe her eyes. Harry, Ron, Blaise, and Draco were all sitting at the Gryffindor table.

Fallen still lay beneath the table, but, for the moment, Yoko lay beneath Dumbledore's chair.

She growled to herself.

Arcana hadn't done any damage to the Gryffindors, who although she wasn't aware of this, were talking, not about the tiger Guardian, but the three-headed dog they'd been running from when Arcana had cornered them, to keep their minds off Tarana who was still sleeping by the fire in the common room, her wounds healing slower than usual.

_I will get them sometime this year. I will make Uncle Lucius proud._ She hissed to herself.

---

Harry had just explained to the others about the package that seemed to have been moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, and the four spent a lot of time wondering what could possibly need such heavy security.

"It's either really valuable, or really dangerous." Blaise said thoughtfully.

"Or both." Ron pointed out.

Draco wisely pointed out that, while all they really knew about it was that it was that it was about two inches long; they would never guess what the package was.

The four noticed that neither Neville nor Hermione showed the slightest interest in what lay beneath the trap door, and while this made the four wonder whether or not the two would turn them in, it was quickly pushed from their minds by other things.

Hermione was now refusing to speak to the boys, but, in Ron's opinion, she was such a bossy know-it-all that they saw this as an added bonus.

They were all focused on how to get back at Katelyn. And to their delight, it arrived a week later.

Tarana was now back beside Harry at lunch and it seemed that Dumbledore was now aware that his school was not as safe as it appeared, as Fallen, Yoko, and/or Tarana often spoke with him after dinner, when the common room was pretty full, and it was clear that their chosen were safe enough to be left alone for a few minutes, but never longer than 10. It was beyond obvious, that the Guardians were paranoid about something.

As the owls flooded into the Great Hall as usual, everyone's attention was drawn to a long, thin package carried by six screech owls.

Harry was just as interested as everyone else, and was amazed when the owls dropped the parcel in front of him, knocking his bacon to the floor, where Tarana ate it and picked the plate up.

They had hardly fluttered out of the way when Hedwig dropped another letter on top of it and landed on Harry's shoulder, nibbling on his ear in greeting.

Draco picked the letter up, flipping it over before handing it to Harry, who was absently stroking Hedwig. "It's for you." he said, a small smirk on his face.

Harry ripped the letter open, and read:

_DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE. _

_It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everyone knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for your first training session._

_Professor McGonagall_

Harry handed the note to Ron and the others, hiding his glee with only a bit of difficulty.

"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron moaned enviously. "I've never even touched one."

Draco and Blaise smirked at him. "I'm sure, Ron." Draco said mockingly, and Ron mock glared at him.

"Shut up, Malfoy."

Draco shuddered as they stood. "Don't remind me." he said.

Blaise raised an eyebrow at him. "Remind you of what?" he asked.

Draco smirked at him. "That I'm related to a Slytherin." he said.

Their laughter echoed around the entrance hall.

It stopped when Crabbe and Goyle blocked their path. Katelyn seized the package from Harry and felt it. "That's a broomstick." she said, throwing it back to Harry with a mixture of jealously and spite on her face.

"**Glad to see that you can cop a feel, mortal."** Fallen said, walking into the castle. **"Potter has 'special circumstances'. I suggest you leave. Tarana hasn't been in the best of moods since your 'friendly' attack."**

Katelyn's lip curled, but she left all the same.

As she walked away, they began to climb the marble staircase, an angry voice called up from behind them.

"So, I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking the rules?"

Blaise and Draco turned, spotting Hermione stomping up the stairs towards them.

"Thought you weren't talking to us." Blaise said coolly.

"Yes, don't stop now," Draco added, smirking maliciously. "It's doing us so much good."

Hermione marched away with her nose in the air.

---

Harry had a lot of trouble keeping his mind on his lessons that day. It kept wandering up to the dormitory where his broomstick was lying under his bed.

Tarana nudged his foot in potions later. Snape shot him a disapproving glare but, as always when Tarana was in the class, said nothing.

After dinner, Harry and Ron bolted up the stairs; Draco and Blaise had homework to finish and had gone up earlier. The four then climbed the stairs to the dormitory and Harry unwrapped the Nimbus.

Tarana looked down at the broom that rolled from the wrapping to Harry's bedspread as it hit her side.

Draco watched Harry out of the corner of his eye. The black-haired boy's eyes were bright, almost glowing in his happiness. He closed his eyes, something dark welling in his heart, but he pushed it away.

At seven, Harry, Draco, and their Guardians left the common room and headed towards the Quidditch field.

"So, tell me why I needed to be out here." Draco said.

"**Arcana got away. We know that his master doesn't like failure. We also know that he's probably still around. From here on out, you three won't travel without one another."** Fallen said.

Tarana looked down.

"I thought you said that people Guardians protected were chosen, not masters." Harry said.

Tarana looked up at the two boys. **"Arcana isn't a willing dark Guardian. He is a Guardian to another family. Together the four of us along with two others worked with wizards, until our world began to crumble. Dark, Voldemort's Guardian, his power is over mind, like mine is fire and Fallen's in wind. Arcana had just been in a fight and was too weak to resist it. He's been Voldemort's mind slave ever since."** her voice was sad.

Draco looked at Fallen. "Tarana. You were the Queen of your world right." She nodded. "Was…was Arcana the King?"

Tarana paused and Fallen looked back at her. **"How did you…"**

Harry and Draco looked at each other and than at her. "It wasn't hard. It fits the way that you acted that night. How you wouldn't fight back and seemed just a little scared when Fallen said he'd fight for you." Draco said.

Tarana was silent.

She looked up into the sky, and chuckled quietly. **"I suppose it shouldn't surprise me. For different reasons, you're both very observant…."**

Fallen's ears twitched and he looked over at Wood, who was staring at the four that stood/sat on the field.

"Um?" he trailed off, staring at the reminiscing panther.

Alex recognized the boy. **'Oliver Wood.' **He murmured, snapping Tarana from her memories. She let loose a low, threatening growl before she could completely help it.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "He's who we're waiting for?"

Tarana nodded, forcing her thoughts to return to the present and turned her baleful blue eyes on the Gryffindor team captain.

Draco, Fallen, and Tarana watched as Harry and Wood went through everything that Harry would need to know for the team.

Chasers, beaters, seekers, the Quaffle, Bludgers, and Snitch.

Finally, the two took to the air, using golf balls instead of the Snitch, which in the dark, Wood was sure that they'd lose.

---

Heading back up to the castle, Harry was asleep on his feet.

"**Poor boy, he's so exhausted."** Tarana muttered as Draco helped Harry out of the fourth trick stair of the night. Despite her chosen's exhaustion however, she couldn't help but feel proud of him.

---

Halloween arrived quickly for the Gryffindors.

In Charms, Tarana lay under the table that Harry shared with Seamus Finnigan, watching as Hermione berated Ron for doing the Levitating Charm wrong. Watching that is, until Harry and Seamus' feather began to burn. She put it out with a soft chuckle, much to the boys' embarrassment.

The three Guardians still spent late nights with each other, sparring and practicing their elemental magic.

It came to them in small bursts, such as putting out the feather fire. Huge outputs of it still left Yoko and Fallen unconscious and Tarana with too little energy to move.

Ron was in a foul mood by the end of class. "It's no wonder no one can stand her." he said as they left the classroom. "She's a nightmare honestly."

Someone knocked into Harry and Tarana only watched them go, the scent of tears lingering after Hermione. **"She heard you, Weasley."** Tarana said.

Ron looked uncomfortable. "So, she must've noticed she's got no frie- AH!"

Ron was now hanging from one of the torches that lit the corridor.

Yoko's eyes were red, fangs bared in fury. **"You are one of the rudest people I've ever had the displeasure of meeting Ronald Weasley."** the fox snarled, before running after Hermione.

Ron squirmed under the accusing glares that Draco, Fallen, and Blaise threw at him.

Harry and Tarana remained indifferent, although most likely for different reasons.

It would be quite some time before Ron could convince either of the two Guardians to help him get down, thus he was late for his next class.

Harry might have helped him, had Draco and Blaise not dragged him off.

---

Hermione heard the door open and curled up further into a ball, trying to quiet her sobs so as not to be noticed.

"**Hermione-sera?"**

Hermione stiffened. "Go away, Yoko." she mumbled, her words coming out as if she were being choked.

Yoko crawled on his stomach to fit under the stall door. **"Hermione…"** he whispered, taking in her crumpled robes, red eyes, and tear stained face.

As if the silver fox's appearance saddened her further, she burst into a new set of tears. Yoko's emerald eyes saddened and he pushed his way onto her lap, licking away her tears in the only comfort he could give the poor girl.

---

Hermione and Yoko didn't turn up for the rest of the afternoon.

Tarana and Fallen told them that Hermione was in the girl's bathroom, crying. This bit of news caused Draco and Blaise to throw death glares at Ron once more.

The feast progressed smoothly, for a few minutes at least.

And only for the students.

Tarana narrowed her eyes.

"What's wrong, Tarana?" Blaise asked.

"**Something's not right."** she said, just as Quirrell ran into the room, his face full of terror and his turban askew.

Everyone stared as he reached Dumbledore's chair and slumped against the table.

"Troll-in the dungeons-thought you ought to know." the man fainted.

Fallen growled. _**'He's a fucking liar.'**_ he growled to Tarana as the hall exploded into an uproar.

'_**He may be faking unconsciousness, Fallen, but Dark is prowling the corridors with a troll. He definitely wasn't lying about that.'**_ Tarana said, retracting her senses from the hallways of the school.

'_**And Yoko's still out there.'**_ Fallen added.

Tarana watched the hall slowly clear.

"Tarana! Fallen! Come on!" Blaise called back.

The two slowly began to follow, focused solely on their surroundings as they used all of their considerable skill to try and avoid the troll and the dark Guardian at all costs.

---

As they jostled through a crowd of Hufflepuffs, Harry grabbed Ron's arm and Draco did the same to Blaise.

Fallen and Tarana watched the four converse before they began to walk in a different direction.

'_**Harry, where do you think you're going?'**_ Tarana asked.

'Hermione doesn't know about the troll.' Harry answered.

'_**The girl is none of your concern, Harry. And she is with Yoko, who **_**will**_** know about it.'**_

'She's our friend, Tarana. And you have to admit, making Ron face a troll is adequate punishment for putting Hermione in this position in the first place.' Harry responded.

'_**This doesn't tell me why **_**all**_** of you are going.'**_

'Doesn't Fallen want to do the same? Throw it down to human kindness.'

Tarana looked at Fallen. **"Let's go."** she said, running through the Hufflepuffs after the four boys.

---

Meanwhile, Yoko was trying to wake Hermione, who had cried herself to sleep.

Swearing to himself in several languages, he spun around, crouching defensively as Dark's scent grew closer, followed by the rotten smell that just screamed 'troll'.

Snorting to clear his nose, he turned back to Hermione. **"I'm sorry."** he muttered, biting her arm.

She woke as the troll and a large, jet-black wolf easily twice the size of Fallen entered the bathroom.

She screamed.

---

Tarana and Fallen ran alongside the boys on either side.

"Hermione." Blaise panted, as the scream echoed.

"Fallen." Draco panted.

The red wolf needed no further prompting to aid his lover, and picked up his speed, blurring to nothing through the hallways.

---

Yoko growled darkly at the black wolf, remaining between the girl and them.

"**Yoko. You can't win as you are."**

'Hold on, Yoko. Fallen's on his way.' Blaise called.

Yoko snarled, yelping as the troll swung its club and it connected with his side, throwing him into a sink, shattering it.

"Yoko!" Hermione cried out.

"**Shut up, mortal fool."** the wolf snarled.

The troll attacked her, but she dodged it. The sinks shattered under the force, pieces of glass raining down on Yoko's form.

"**Dark!"**

Fallen lunged for the other wolf, sending the two canines into a snarling, vicious mass of claws and fangs.

Hermione screamed when the troll swung again, this time, at the red wolf, who was busily trying to gnaw through the thick fur around Dark's leg joint and avoid the other's own fangs, which seemed determined to grab the back of his neck.

The four boys and Tarana arrived.

Tarana lunged at the club that was coming down on a preoccupied Fallen and terrified Hermione, who was trapped between the two quarreling creatures and the troll.

"**Granger! Move!"** she growled around a mouthful of spiked wood.

Draco and Blaise were at her side, trying to get her to move, but all she could whisper was that Yoko was hurt.

Blaise looked at the small fox, whom had leaped from his place beneath the sinks and was now assisting Fallen with the black wolf. It was becoming increasingly obvious that while Fallen was obviously built for speed, Dark was built for strength, and with so little room to move, Fallen had the short end of the stick.

Blaise was quick to note, however, that one of the sharp spikes on the troll's clubs must have impaled him, as he was bleeding profusely from a single wound on his side that was definitely not from the dark Guardian.

Tarana lost her grip on the club, and her claws were torn from the ground as she was flung from it and into a wall, knocking Harry's wand from his grasp.

"Ron! Do something!" Draco yelled.

Ron called out the first spell that came to mind. "_Wingardium Leviosa_!"

The club didn't come down when the troll swung at Tarana and Harry. Instead, it levitated for a moment before it came slamming down on his head.

Fallen and Yoko both backed up to crouch, vicious, blood dripping fangs bared, on either side of Harry and Tarana.

Dark fled.

Tarana and the others got to their feet as the sound of approaching footsteps invaded the still air.

Someone must have heard them downstairs.

Moments later, McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell ran into the room.

Quirrell took one look at the troll and sat quickly on one of the few toilets that remained with a small whimper.

This time, Yoko was the one who narrowed his eyes on the professor.

Snape knelt by the troll and McGonagall was glaring at Ron and Harry, as she couldn't see Hermione, Draco, and Blaise.

Harry would have been more worried had it been his Guardian on the other side of the glare. However, his Guardian hadn't said anything more about the reckless act, and he wasn't worried. He couldn't say the same for Ron, who still had his wand raised.

"What on earth were you thinking?!" McGonagall yelled, her voice cold with fury. "You're luck you weren't killed! Why aren't you in your dormitory?!"

Tarana growled, stepping forward and watching with a flash of amusement as the transfiguration professor took a step away from her. **"Bitch!"** she snarled.** "That was no ordinary troll. It was better **_**they **_**come down with us, than _you _come down alone!"** she hissed.

McGonagall glared at the panther, raising to her full height. Guardian or not, she would not allow her students to be put in danger. "And why is that?" she asked, sharply.

Yoko and Fallen both growled at her blatant insubordination to their Queen.

"**Because. That troll was traveling with a guardian."** Fallen sneered.

Snape and McGonagall exchanged startled looks.

"**And guardians are all immune to most magic."** Yoko added.

"Except for their own and a chosen's magic." Hermione's voice was quiet and timid as she walked from the shadowy areas, using Blaise as a crutch.

It appeared that she'd gotten a sprained ankle, which Snape, under Fallen's watchful eye, knelt to check and performed a weak, but effective healing spell.

"But I only heard about the troll, and went looking for it. I-I thought I could deal with it on my own-you know, because I've read all about them." Hermione continued, keeping her eyes averted.

Draco, Blaise, and Harry had no problem keeping their faces impassive.

Ron however, dropped his wand.

Hermione Granger, was telling a downright lie to a teacher? Holy shit.

"If Yoko hadn't followed me and warned the others, I'd be dead now." she finished still not meeting anyone's eyes.

McGonagall stared at them, judging. Finally, she said, "Well, in that case, Miss. Granger five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this, I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not injured anywhere else, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."

Hermione left quickly.

McGonagall turned back to the four friends. "Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could take on a full-grown mountain troll."

Fallen snorted. **"Please Minerva. They're chosen."**

McGonagall nodded. "Be that as it may, you will each be rewarded five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."

They hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak until they were two floors up.

To Draco, it was a relief to be away from the smell of troll, something that the three Guardians were all to ready to agree with.

"We should've gotten more than twenty points." Ron grumbled.

"Fifteen, you mean, once she's taken off Hermione's." Blaise pointed out.

"Good of her to get us out of trouble like that." Ron admitted. "Mind you, we did save her."

Yoko, Fallen, and Draco glared at him.

"**She wouldn't had needed saving if you had kept your mouth shut."** Yoko said, obviously still annoyed with the red head.

They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Pig Snout." they said and entered.

The common room was packed and noisy.

Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up.

Hermione, however, stood alone by the portrait, waiting for them.

There was an embarrassed pause, in which the three Guardians went up to the dormitory to avoid the compact noise.

Tarana stopping at the stairs to watch the four boys and their new friend chat.

She smiled and disappeared upstairs.

* * *

**sera**is a Guardian suffix, much like the Japanese, who most likely adapted this practice. It is used when referring to a young teen(Guardians tend to _earn_ a gender, rather than are born with them, so it can be used for either male or female teenagers, despite the fact that it ends in an 'a'). As the majority of the Guardian suffixes are reserved only for the brilliant minded, it is considered a compliment most, if not all, of the times that it is used(sarcasm is an obvious exception).


	11. The Quidditch Curse

This Chapter was Revised 8/25/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Eleven: The Quidditch Curse**_

As they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy gray and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost, although thanks to Tarana(if she was feeling generous) and Hagrid they never stayed that way past noon.

Hagrid could often be seen from the upstairs windows defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch field, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and enormous beaver skin boot.

The Quidditch season had begun as well.

On Saturday, Harry would play in his first match after weeks of training: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.

If Gryffindor won, they'd move up into second place in the House championship. Hardly anyone had seen Harry play, just Tarana, Draco, and Fallen, who had accompanied him to practice each time while Blaise and Yoko stayed in the common room with Hermione and Ron.

But, the news that he was playing seeker had leaked out somehow, and Harry didn't know which was worse-people telling him he'd be great or people telling him they'd be running around underneath him with a mattress.

Tarana, Fallen, and Yoko, now that Hermione and Blaise were there to help with the homework, spent more and more time practicing, switching off taking watch in the common room.

Two outside and one in.

Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking the rules since Harry and the others had saved her from the mountain troll and Dark. And she was much nicer for it.

Yoko was watching Harry and the others stand around a blue flame that Hermione had conjured, while the remaining two Guardians were as far from the castle as they were willing to test. The grounds that they had chosen as a practice arena, almost constantly held the marks of their aggressive sparring, using the chance to fight something tangible, even if it was an ally, to relieve the pent up stress of not knowing where Dark and/or Arcana was and when they'd make another move.

Harry and Draco caught sight of Snape first, limping across the courtyard. He limped over to them and Yoko stood from where he was laying beneath the bench.

"What's that you got there, Potter?"

It was _Quidditch through the Ages_ and Harry showed him, having nothing to hide. "Library books are not to be taken outside the school." Snape said. "Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor."

Yoko growled as Snape walked away. **"He made that rule up."** he muttered mutinously. **"Wonder what was wrong with his leg."**

"Dunno, but I hope it's really hurting him." Ron said, bitterly.

Yoko waited until Fallen and Tarana returned before leaving to see Snape.

He slid through the shadowy area of the staffroom. The fox's ears twitched.

"Blasted thing." he heard Snape growl. "How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?"

'_**Yoko…Is Harry with you? He won't answer me.'**_ Tarana said.

Yoko chuckled when the question was answered. "POTTER!!"

Yoko slipped further into the shadows as Harry shot past him. The silver fox walked into the room, twisting the doorknob. **"Well. May I ask why you were trying to get past the three-headed dog?"**

Filch was kneeling by Snape's leg, holding a strip of bandages in his hand. Both were staring at the silver fox in shock.

Yoko chuckled. **"No? Than I'll have to guess. Halloween night, your scent passed the bathroom that the troll attacked. You were heading to the Forbidden Corridor. Now the question is to gain…or protect."** Yoko said, his silver tail flicking in idle contentment. He was at home, playing mind games with the wizards.

Snape narrowed his eyes on the fox.

"**The Guardians, it appears, are here for most of the school. Why should Slytherin be any different?"**

Snape looked down. "The secret must be kept. Students can't know."

Yoko sighed. **"For starters, let's get that leg seen to. Then, I will listen."**

**---**

Tarana watched, through lazy eyes, Harry tell the others what he'd seen.

"You know what this means?" he finished breathlessly. "He tried to get past that three headed dog on Halloween! He's after what ever it's guarding! And-"

"**And you will do **_**no**_** more assuming tonight, from any of you. Sleep."**

Draco looked at the wolf.

"Why are you sticking up for him? There's never been any love lost between the two of you, Fallen." Ron said. The wolf growled quietly.

"He's right, Ron. You and Harry are assuming the worst because of rumors and how he treats Harry." Draco cut in.

Ron glared at him.

"**Weasley. I will warn you only once. Severus Snape is more than you understand. There's more going on than you realize. You're only eleven. Fallen and Draco are right. First impressions are not everything."** Tarana said, her voice quiet but the command to drop it was loud and clear.

"**In time, you will begin to understand, that not all is as it seems, and that danger often lurks where it is closest to the pray it seeks."** Fallen's cryptic warning was the two Guardians' last comment for the night, as they retreated to the dorms to rest, Tarana all but dragging Harry with her.

---

The next day dawned bright and cold.

The Great Hall was full of the smell of fried sausages and the cheerful chatter of everyone looking forward to a good Quidditch match.

Draco and Fallen arrived at breakfast to see Hermione trying to get Harry to eat something.

"You've got to eat something." she said.

Harry sighed. "I don't want anything."

"Just a bit of toast." wheedled Hermione.

"I'm not hungry." Harry almost growled.

Draco smirked and shoved a sausage in his friend's mouth as he dropped into the customary empty seat beside his friend. "Eat it." he ordered.

Harry glared, but slowly ate the sausage.

Hermione gave him a small, triumphant smile and returned to her own food. Harry glared at them all, but stuck out his half chewed sausage at a snickering Blaise, who made a gagging sound into his porridge.

Draco swat him on the back of the head for bad table manners, but he and Blaise both, were happy to see that he was at least _acting_ like he wasn't worried.

---

By eleven o' clock, the whole school seemed to be out in the stands around the Quidditch pitch.

Many students, Draco, Blaise, and Ron among them, had binoculars. The seats might be raised high into the air, but it was still difficult to see what was going on at times, since there was rarely a height limit during game play.

Harry's friends, minus Tarana, who was by the changing rooms with her charge, and Fallen, who was on the ground by their seats, unable to fit with the stands as packed with students as they were, had joined Neville, Seamus, and Dean in the top row.

As a surprise to Harry, they had painted a large banner on one of the sheets that Scabbers had ruined.

It said 'Potter for President', and Dean, who was a pretty good artist, had drawn a rearing Gryffindor lion over a crouching larger black panther underneath.

Then, Hermione had performed a tricky little charm so the paint flashed different colors.

Draco assured them that his best friend would like it.

---

Meanwhile, in the locker room, Harry and the rest of the team were changing into their scarlet Quidditch robes (Slytherin would be playing in green). Wood cleared his throat for silence.

"Okay, men." he said.

"And women." said Chaser Angelina Johnson.

"And women." Wood agreed. "This is it."

"The big one," said Fred Weasley.

"The one we've all been waiting for," said George.

"We know Oliver's speech by heart." Fred told Harry in a mock whisper, "we were on the team last year."

"Shut up, you two." said Wood. "This is the best team Gryffindor's had in years. We're going to win. I know it." He glared at them as if to say, 'or else.' "Right. It's time. Good luck, all of you."

Harry followed Fred and George out of the locker room and, hoping his knees weren't going to give way, walked onto the field to loud cheers. He accepted Tarana's reassuring nuzzle and wish for luck before shooing her to the Gryffindor stands where Fallen lounged on the ground, eyeing the students above and around him.

Hooch was refereeing.

She stood in the middle of the field waiting for the two teams, her broom in her hand. "Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you." she said, once they were all gathered around her.

Harry noticed that she seemed to be speaking particularly to the Slytherin Captain, Marcus Flint, a sixth year. Harry thought Flint looked as if he had some troll blood in him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Tarana and Fallen and above them, the fluttering banner high above, flashing Potter for President over the crowd. Green met with grayish blue and his heart skipped.

He felt braver.

"Mount your brooms, please."

Harry did as he was told.

Hooch gave a loud blast on her silver whistle.

Fifteen brooms rose up, high, high into the air.

They were off and the game had begun.

"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor-what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive too-"

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry Professor."

The Weasley twins' friend, Lee Jordan, was doing the commentary for the match, closely watched by McGonagall for obvious reasons. The older Gryffindor had a tendency to share his thoughts with the crowd.

"And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve-back to Johnson and -no, the Slytherins have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes-Flint flying like an eagle up there-he's going to sc-no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and the Gryffindors take the Quaffle-that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and -OUCH-that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger-Quaffle taken by the Slytherins-that's Adrian Pucey speeding off towards the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second bludger-sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which-nice play by the Gryffindor Beater, anyway, and Johnson back in possession of the Quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes-she's really flying-dodges a speeding Bludger-the goal posts are ahead-come on, now, Angelina-Keeper Bletchley dives-misses-GRYFFINDOR SCORE!"

Gryffindor cheers filled the cold air, with howls and moans from the Slytherins.

"Budge up there, move along."

"Hagrid!" Blaise called over the heads of their fellow Gryffindors.

Ron and Hermione squeezed together and Draco, raising an eyebrow, moved to stand a few feet away, wondering what their giant friend was thinking, the Gryffindor stands were so packed that there was barely enough room for _them_, let alone the grounds keeper.

"Bin watchin' from me hut," said Hagrid, patting a large pair of binoculars around his neck. "But it isn't the same as bein' in the crowd. No sign of the Snitch yet, eh?"

"Nope," said Ron. "Harry hasn't had much to do yet."

"Kept outta trouble, though, that's something'," said Hagrid, raising his binoculars and peering skyward at the speck that was Harry.

On the ground, Fallen and Tarana were half watching the match, half watching the teachers' box. So they were some of the first to see that Harry lost control.

Tarana lunged up, eyes literally sparking off red light.

Fallen appeared in her hazed vision. **"Tarana. Stop. We need to think about this." **He murmured, hoping to calm her before she killed someone.

Tarana growled. **"Fallen. That man is after my chosen. You will move, or die."** she snarled.

Fallen blinked, looking up at the box of teachers and than up at Harry. He sighed. **"Tarana. Listen to me. You need to support Harry. I'll take care of the teacher. You know me. Yoko and I'll take care of it."**

The panther's eyes narrowed and she looked up at the seeker as he was thrown from his broom, hanging on by one hand. _**'Harry! Hang on with both hands or you'll fall.'**_

Harry did his best to do as she asked, just barely managing it, his fingers so slick with nervous sweat. Hanging several hundred meters above the ground was _not_ how he envisioned his first match to go.

Draco and Blaise sprinted down the stairs, heading towards the teachers, after Yoko.

Fallen's command still ringing in their ears.

Tarana was pissed and Harry was barely hanging onto the broom. Tarana was waiting at the base of the seats and Fallen was waiting at the foot of the teacher's box. With a soft snarl from Tarana, Yoko scampered after him, eager to be away from the volatile panther Queen.

Tarana looked at the two remaining chosen, and looked up at the dangling Harry. Fred and George were now circling below him, ready to catch him if he fell.

Draco and Blaise restrained Tarana to the best of their limited magic ability, as there was no way that she could get up to Harry without harming someone in the process.

"Tarana." Draco warned, through gritted teeth as she struggled against the binding spell he had on her.

"There's nothing you can do right now, Tarana." Blaise said, trying to soothe the angered panther Guardian.

She roared, drawing a few more eyes.

It was only a few minutes before Yoko and Fallen did whatever job they were set to do and Harry was able to clamber onto his broom, speeding towards the ground.

He half rolled, half collapsed off the broom just inches from the ground, coughing violently.

Draco, Blaise, and Tarana were by his side seconds after the Snitch fell into his hands, covered from wing tip to wing tip in his saliva, Draco noted in distant disgust.

"**Harry?"**

"You alright, mate?" Draco asked.

Harry took the offered had and pulled himself to his feet. He nodded slowly, looking down at his hand.

Tarana nudged him gently and with an uncharacteristic smirk, Blaise brought the hand that held the Snitch into the air.

The game ended, dramatic as it had been with the final score: Gryffindor one hundred and seventy; Slytherin sixty.

Harry never heard Marcus Flint's angry protests that he hadn't caught the Snitch, but had nearly swallowed it.

He was being made a cup of tea back at Hagrid's hut, with the others spread around the room.

"It was Snape." Ron was explaining. "Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you."

Draco remained silent for a moment, before adding in his information. "I don't think so. At least not the cursing part."

Hermione stared at him coolly for a moment. "I know a jinx when I see one, Draco. I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all. I saw him."

Something in the hut shattered as Draco stood advancing on Hermione until he towered over her know-it-all form. "You know nothing! So you've read about them! Big fucking deal! I know Severus, he wasn't cursing Harry!"

Ron stood as well. "Then what was he doing, Draco?! We saw him?!"

Draco's eyes flashed in anger. "Perhaps your prejudice against Slytherins clouded your mind, because apparently 'counter curse' never occurred to you!"

"**Draco. Take a walk."** Fallen commanded.

Draco swirled from the hut, the air crackling in his wake.

Hagrid was the first to shake his shock. "Listen to me, all of yeh-yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. Snape wouldn't try an' kill a student. Ron you really should apologize ter Draco."

Harry glanced at Tarana, who was staring unblinkingly at him. **"All of you, forget that dog ****and**** what it's guarding for the time being. It doesn't concern you, its between Albus and Nicolas Flamel."** Yoko told them.

Ron looked triumphant. "So there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved is there?"

Yoko only stared at him, and Blaise and Harry both got the impression that Yoko hadn't revealed anything that he hadn't thought long and hard over before hand.

Harry glanced at the door.

'_**Go young one.'**_ Tarana whispered to him.

Harry nodded and stood, walking out in search of Draco. He didn't want to lose his first friend because Ron was being an asshole.

---

Draco felt the magic drain from him, though his anger remained. The pitch was empty everyone either celebrating Gryffindor's win or sulking in the dungeons. Sitting with his back against one of the goal posts, his arms wrapped around his knees, he caught Harry's approach out of the corner of his eyes and rolled them.

Harry stood, stared at Draco and couldn't help the shudder that ran down his spine.

The older boy looked too vulnerable.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he sat beside his friend. Both were silent for a while.

"I won't apologize, Harry." Draco whispered.

Harry smiled slightly. "I won't ask you to. I don't think Snape was jinxing my broom. I believe you when you say that he was casting the counter curse."

Draco stared at him. "Why?"

Harry shrugged. "He doesn't seem the type to do anything like that." Draco sighed, rolling his eyes. "He favors Slytherin, Drac, that doesn't make him the evil killer that Ron's making him out to be."

Draco glanced at his friend. "Why do you believe me, Harry?"

Harry raised an eyebrow, something that Draco figured he'd gotten from Blaise and himself. "Why do you?" he returned.

Draco smiled slightly.

"You've given me no reason to believe that Snape isn't a murderer."

Draco's smile widened. "I often wonder what it would be like if you hadn't taken my friendship over the summer. Would you have taken it on the train?"

Harry shrugged. "Without Tarana, I probably would have ended up hating you. Hagrid wasn't pleased, not at first, when he found out that I talked with you, and if it had meant keeping my first friend, I would have accustomed my views to do so." Harry answered. "But I can tell you for sure that I'm glad we're friends."

Draco smirked. "I'm sure. After all, what would you do without me?"

Harry snickered, easily replying, "Crash and burn."

--

Tarana stood on the post above them, watching and listening. A small smile grew on her lips, watching through glowing eyes, the amber and red strands of magic that danced between the two friends.

_Stay safe, boys. You both hold so much more in your hands than you realize._ She whispered to herself, leaping into the shadows of the pitch to follow them back to the castle.


	12. Christmas and the Mirror

This Chapter was Revised 8/26/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Twelve: Christmas and the Mirror**_

Christmas was coming.

Mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and, much to the Guardian's amusement, the twins were given detention for bewitching snowballs to follow Quirrell, bouncing off the back of his turban.

The few owls that managed to battle through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid. Yoko would occasionally help by bringing dead meat for the owls.

No one could wait for the holidays to start, except for Fallen, who only wanted it to be over.

Yoko and Tarana snickered at his annoyed tone, but when asked why they were laughing, would burst into hysterics and the questioner was glared at severely.

The entire school was cold, except for the common room and Great Hall, both of which had fires to keep it warm.

"I do feel sorry," Katelyn said, one Potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home." She'd been smirking at Harry and Draco as she spoke and Crabbe and Goyle chuckled.

Harry, who was measuring out powdered spine of lionfish, ignored them, Draco only graced them with a glare before returning to work.

It was true, though.

Neither were going home for the holidays. McGonagall had come around seconds after Draco had gotten a letter from his father, telling him that he didn't want to see or hear from him over the vacation.

Draco had shrugged and handed the letter to Hermione who threw it into the nearby fire. It was obvious that he didn't give a shit about his father's opinion on his House placement. He was happy where he was.

Ron and his brothers were staying too, because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to visit Charlie in Romania.

When they left the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound told that Hagrid was behind it.

"Hi Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches.

"Nah, I'm alright, thanks Ron." Hagrid answered.

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" Katelyn drawled coldly from behind them. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose-that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."

Ron dove for her just as Snape and Yoko, who had been spending a bit more time with the Potions professor than made Ron and Hermione comfortable, came upstairs.

"**Weasley! What the hell are you doing?!"** Yoko growled.

Ron backed up as Snape opened his mouth.

"He was provoked, sir. Malfoy was insultin' his family." Hagrid cut in.

"Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid." Snape said silkily. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you."

Katelyn, Crabbe, and Goyle pushed roughly past the tree, scattering needles everywhere and smirking.

Yoko caught Ron's eyes, a mischievous glint in his green eyes. _**'You really should have waited. You'll get your chance, Weasley. Never attack a Snake, when so close to the den.'**_ he whispered, trailing after Blaise and the others. _**'It's nothing short of suicide.'**_

Fallen paused at the door to the Great Hall, watching as the giant fir tree with feet approached them. Taking pity on the giant, who had always been one of his favorite people, he lifted the tree off Hagrid's shoulders to levitate it into the Hall. Hagrid flashed a grateful smile and led the others through the doors.

"Ah, the last tree-put it in the far corner, would you?"

The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, others glittered with hundreds of candles lit by Tarana's flames.

"How many days you got left until you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.

"Just one." Hermione said.

Blaise smirked slightly. "That reminds me-we need to get to the library if we want to get something done before lunch."

"Oh yeah, right." Ron said, tearing his eyes away from Flitwick and Tarana, who were combining their magic to create gold and silver bubbles, trailing them along the branches of the most recent fir tree.

"The library?" Hagrid asked, following them out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

Draco smiled cheekily. "Oh, we're not working."

Harry gave a similar grin. "Ever since Yoko mentioned Nicolas Flamel, we've been trying to find out who he is."

"You what?!" Hagrid looked shocked. "Listen here-I've told yeh-drop it. Its nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'."

Hermione smiled. "We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all." she said.

"Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Ron added, a hint of a complaining tone coming into his voice. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere-just give us a hint."

"I know I've read his name somewhere." Harry said.

Draco nodded in agreement.

"I'm not sayin' nothin'." Hagrid stated flatly.

Blaise shrugged. "Just have to find out for ourselves than." he said and they left, Blaise caught sight of Fallen's crimson eyes following them from the open doors, and wondered how much more the Guardians knew and weren't telling.

---

Later, they left the library, and Draco made a comment on how they needed to do a nice long search without Pince breathing down their necks.

"You will keep looking while I'm away won't you?" Hermione said. "And send me an owl if you find anything."

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is." said Ron. "It'd be safe to ask them."

"Very safe." she answered sarcastically. "As they're both dentists."

---

Once the holidays started, the boys were having too much fun to think about Flamel. They had the dormitory to themselves and the common room was far emptier than they had remembered it being.

One day, Draco and Harry waited for Blaise and Ron to get up and passed the time plotting ways to get Katelyn expelled, on occasion, Tarana and Fallen would add their input from their place beside the fire.

It made for some very interesting ideas, when you combined the Slytherin-like mind of Draco, the two very violent minds of the Guardians, and Harry's far too imaginative one.

---

Three days before Christmas, Tarana entered the silent library, passing as nothing by a shadow into the Restricted Section, searching the titles for something; her blue eyes glowed as they landed on the one she wanted.

_Guardian Transfer Bonds._ She thought to herself, letting her eyes flash a deep, glowing red and two identical copies appeared on either side.

Fallen and Yoko met her in the corridor.

"**You got it?"** Fallen asked.

Tarana nodded.

A huge book appeared before Yoko. **"And I've got what I want."** he whispered.

Tarana smirked. **"You think they'll ever forgive us?"**

Fallen shrugged. **"They'll get over it."**

**---**

They were halfway back to the Tower when Harry called out to Tarana.

It surprised her, as it was nearly two in the morning and although she knew he wasn't asleep, his thoughts were too chaotic for that, she hadn't expected him to attempt to talk to her this late at night.

'_**Yes, Harry?'**_ she asked.

'What would you like for Christmas?'

Tarana's eyes widened and a memory flashed through her mind unbidden.

'_**Wha-'**_ she hadn't been asked that since James was young.

A sharp pang accompanied the thought.

'It's just that you've given me all this stuff before Hogwarts and I never got the chance to give you anything in return.'

Tarana's eyes soften as she trailed behind Yoko and Fallen, approaching the corridor that housed the portrait of the Fat Lady. _**'Surprise me, Harry. I'm sure I'll love whatever you get me.'**_

The link was silent before Harry answered sleepily. 'Alright.'

'**You're going soft, Tarana.'** Alex commented, receiving a sharp snarl in return.

---

Draco woke Christmas morning, to Harry, Blaise, and Ron throwing pillows at him.

"I'm up, I'm up." he snarled at them, receiving only snickers in return. "Merry Christmas, you rude people." he said, glaring at his friends before turning to the pile of gifts on his bed.

---

Tarana, Fallen, and Yoko lay downstairs by the fire, listening to the sound of the first year boys opening their presents.

The gifts for their charges were lying on the couch, content to wait for the boys to open them. For now, they would ignore the dangers of Hogwarts, and wait, like they had for friends the many years before.

"**Do you think they're okay?"** Tarana asked quietly, her voice losing its confidant and commanding air, leaving only the soft spoken voice of a worried friend.

Yoko, who was curled up beside Fallen, looked up from the huge book he'd gotten from the library and had been reading/skimming through. **"I'm sure they're fine, Tarana. They can take care of themselves. Have been for years."**

Tarana sighed, looking into the fire. **"I know…but they're family and this is the longest I've ever gone without seeing them."** Tarana tilted her head and the mask fell back into place. **"But you're probably right. They **_**can**_** take care of themselves."**

**---**

Around this time, Harry had received a flute from Hagrid, a sweater from the Weasleys, a box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione, a black pendent of a running panther from Draco and Snape, an eagle quill from Blaise ("Now you can stop 'borrowing' mine."), and an invisibility cloak from an unknown sender.

Draco had received a book on potions from Blaise, a red pendent of a howling wolf from Snape, a box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans from Ron, and three new cloaks from his parents, all in the Slytherin colors ("I think they're trying to tell you somethin', mate."). His favorite however, was the framed and spelled drawing of himself and Fallen from Harry.

It was beyond realistic. From the rare, beautiful smile on the Malfoy heir's face, to every hair movement on the wolf's wagging tail and glittering fanged grin.

Blaise had received a silver pendent of a smirking fox from Draco and Snape, a tin of fudge from Mrs. Weasley ("Mom isn't as fond of my friendship with a Malfoy as Fred and George are, apparently."), a book on martial arts from Hermione, and a charmed drawing of Yoko chasing Mrs. Norris around the Entrance Hall ("Damn, Harry. You should show us your drawings more often.").

Ron received a large amount of money from Harry, Draco, Blaise and a combined threat that if he refused to take it, they'd hex him into oblivion ("Gryffindor or not, I will not walk around with you dressed like _that_."). He also received a charmed bracelet from Blaise, a box of assorted candies from Hermione, and a drawing of a Gryffindor Lion Cub cowering behind a tiger. He was surprised to get a white pendent of a roaring tiger, one that bore a strange resemblance to the one in Harry's drawing, from Draco and Snape ("Severus said Yoko found it.").

---

Tarana smiled slightly at the content feelings she got off of her charge, watching through half veiled eyes as they descended from the dorms to the common room, the sounds of Fred and George marching Percy out the portrait slowly faded from even their hearing.

Yoko discretely moved the book up to one of the dorms as they were wished Merry Christmas from the four boys.

The room fell silent for a moment, before Tarana spoke.

"**Harry, could you bring me that cloak you got for Christmas?"** she asked.

Harry nodded and got up from his place by the fire to retrieve it. Coming back with the silky, silvery gray cloak, Tarana chuckled wryly.

"**Harry, this **was** your father's cloak. And at my request, he gave it to Dumbledore, as there was no way I could carry it around with me. The implications that he's making by giving it to you now, beyond just giving you something of your parents that didn't belong to generations before you piss me off and I will deal with him later. Do not, under any circumstances attempt to use that without one of us knowing."**

Ron looked ready to question her, but Fallen answered before he could even voice the question.

"**Because, Weasley, only two people will be able to find him if something should happen to them and they end up dying or unconscious somewhere."**

Blaise looked confused, as did Ron. "But that's not how the cloak normally works."

Ron nodded in agreement.

"**He's right. But the cloak works differently for every creature that uses it. For an elf, it would cloak the senses of the animals and darker creatures within a five to nine foot radius, depending on rank and power."** Yoko explained to them.

Blaise glanced at Tarana, who was silent. "So what kind of creature would Harry be?"

"**The same as Draco and Blaise."** Tarana whispered. **"And that's all I can tell you. However,"** she gestured to the gifts that sat near the fire.

Draco broke the silence, hesitantly standing and moving towards them, Blaise and Harry followed.

Yoko moved to curl on the back of the couch, near Ron's shoulders, watching the three chosen with cautious eyes.

Opening the larger gift, Draco found the book that Tarana copied from the library. Tilting his head curiously, the others gasped silently when the wolf around his neck howled, movement and all.

Tarana sighed softly. **"I guess its true than."** she whispered, so that only Alex could possibly hear her.

Fallen tilted his head towards her. **"Keep this a secret…"** he paused when the panther around Harry's neck yowled and both animals fell silent.

"**The school has no need to know, as if it gets out to anyone, even Dumbledore, you will be sought out as the next Guardians."** Ron and Blaise gapped at Yoko. **"You fail to understand everything about us, boys. We are immortal, but to an extent. Eventually, you will come up with an animagus form, probably on your fifteenth or sixteenth birthday. Around eighteen, if our hypothesis is correct, Blaise and hopefully Ron will follow."** Ron blinked, shaking his head.

"That's impossible." Tarana smirked. **"No, it's not. Arcana **_**will**_** protect you, even under Dark's control. However, whether or not he's the cause is completely different."**

Ron blinked. "Arcana?"

"**We did some research. Arcana was attacked and eventually taken over, after protecting Edward Timothy Weasley in 1894. Arcana is the Weasley family Guardian."** Ron was staring at Fallen, who had stated this in a matter-of-fact tone that, if you knew him, would have told you that he was either hiding emotions, or he was pissed at you and you should leave or die.

"Is it possible for us to get him back?" Blaise asked, Yoko's paw began idly playing with the pendent on Ron's neck.

"**No."** he said quietly, and Ron's expression fell.

"**But I can."** Tarana said, making all eyes turn to her, the Guardians included. **"Don't worry, Ron. Arcana is special to me. Bringing his mind and conscious back is something that I will work on as hard as you would."**

"**Onto a brighter note."** Yoko said cheerfully. **"Presents!"**

Everyone turned back to the presents that had lain forgotten as the talk turned to Arcana.

Draco nodded. "It's Christmas. Let's enjoy it."

Ron nodded slowly, making to stand up and go back to the dorm.

Yoko shifted and settled his weight on his shoulders, making him sit. **"Don't feel bad. When Tarana frees Arcana, think of all the shiny things you'll get from him."**

Ron stared at the fox before he started laughing.

Yoko's weight disappeared.

Harry had been idly flipping through _Guardian Transfer Bonds_ when Tarana gently placed a paw on it.

'_**The book is yours, Chesa, have fun and open the other gift.'**_ Harry raised an eyebrow, before his eyes went wide.

A locket settled just below the panther's throat, sitting as a collar would. "You're wearing it."

Tarana half turned to smile at him. **"Of course. It was a gift after all. One from you."**

Harry smiled. "You're welcome."

Harry lifted the fang from the box, twirling it between his fingers.

"That's a tiger's fang." Draco breathed his fingers pausing in unwrapping the gift on his lap. "Those are rare enough to be worth millions on any market."

Blaise looked curious. "Why?"

"**Because when pulled, they stain easily. To find one as clean as that, even after all the spells and potions put on it to keep it safe from accidental harm, is rare. Not to mention that tigers, and most big cats, are immune to magic."** Tarana explained.

Ron nodded in understanding. "So _catching_ one would be difficult, too."

Tarana smirked, lazily flicking her tail so that it would brush the edges of the fire.

---

Blaise ran his fingers over what looked like gold and silver vines twined around a large sapphire and emerald mix. It shined in the fire light. "Beautiful." he breathed.

Yoko purred. _**'I worry for you. When home, it will serve as a portkey to Draco or Harry, should your father take it too far. With the approaching rebirth, Tarana, Fallen, and I will be unable to stick around as often as before. As often as we'd like.'**_ he told him.

Harry smiled at the two, when Blaise hugged Yoko tightly, committing it to memory to draw later.

---

Draco fingered the inch long fang in his hand. Each 'side' was embedded with a jewel. Emerald, ruby, sapphire, and pearl.

Fallen tilted his head. _**'You're worried. About what?'**_

'I know what this symbolizes, Fallen.'

'_**To wizards, muggles, or the Guardians? Harry is a snake speaker, **_**parseltongue**_**, from what Tarana's told. But you command them. Powerful in your own right. The fang of the King of Serpents, symbolizes the power of mind and emotion to the Guardians.'**_

'What?'

'_**The Basilisk is the King of Serpents. That fang will help in the long run. Trust me. Harry.'**_

Harry was indeed trying to get his attention.

"Wha-?"

Harry snickered. "We were wondering if you wanted to come down to dinner, Drake."

Draco nodded, standing and allowing the mask worn outside the Tower to fall into place, a whispered spell had the Basilisk fang on a green and silver twinned ribbon, which he put around his neck.

He caught Harry's gaze, and nodded to the cloak on the edge of the couch. He mouthed 'later'.

Harry grinned.

---

That night, Draco and Harry sat before the dwindling embers of the fire.

"Where do you want to go?" Draco asked quietly, eyeing the portrait wearily.

The three Guardians were still out training, but no one ever really knew when they'd come back.

Harry shrugged. "I was thinking the Restricted Section. We could look for anything on Flamel."

Draco nodded slowly. "That makes sense."

---

The two slipped out of the common room, the cloak over both of them. The library was pitch black and very eerie.

Draco cast _lumos_ and the light radiating not quite through the cloak, but gave them enough light to see by.

The Restricted Section was in the back of the library. Stepping through the doors that separated it from the rest of the library, and were closed to all students and staff at night, the two Gryffindors began their search.

Harry admitted silently, that he would probably be a lot more frightened of the Section without Draco or one of the others, as it was, he still wished Tarana was with him.

The two took off the cloak, so as to be able to move quicker and get more work done.

After an hour, both were getting bored.

They had found nothing of any importance.

With a sigh, Draco stood. "Come on Harry. There's nothing in here."

Harry nodded.

They were half under the cloak when the unfamiliar growl split the air.

Draco's eyes darted around, attempting to pierce the library's shadows. "Dark." he whispered.

Harry nodded and as one, they took off.

Instead of being clumsy, like he expected, Harry found that running with Draco was as easy as running on his own.

Once around the corner, Tarana's voice floated around his mind.

_Only two people will be able to find you should something happen…. _

_Two people. Hope Dark isn't one of them._

"Draco, stop. The cloak."

Draco slowed with him and they pulled the cloak on properly.

Dark prowled past them, his soft growl growing into an angry howl.

Draco and Harry winced, panting.

"**You two…are in **so** much trouble when I find you."** Dark's sinister voice made fear slide down their spines like sludge.

Harry shivered, taking a step back, away from Dark and Draco, towards a door behind him, the invisibility cloak shimmered, as if unwilling to let go of their secret.

"Harry." Draco hissed.

He received no answer.

---

Harry was deep in a memory.

Green light, a high pitch laugh, voices, a familiar roar of anger and pain, sinister snarling.

Slowly, a room came into view, Draco's worried face hovering over him. "Harry?"

Harry sat up slowly, and Draco sat back.

"You alright?" he asked.

"I…" Harry took a deep breath. "I don't think so, Draco…but I don't want to talk about it right now either."

Draco helped his friend to his feet and together they looked around the room they were in.

It looked like an unused classroom. The dark shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the wall, and an upturned trashcan was nearby.

Draco's lit wand reflected off of something in the corner and both boys turned and spotted the mirror.

It was as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. At the top, was an inscription: _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_.

"What is this thing?" Draco asked curiously.

"**The Mirror of Erised."**

The anger in Fallen's voice made them both spin around, his suddenly gutteral voice sounding almost exactly like Dark's.

Fallen and Tarana stood on either side of Albus Dumbledore.

Neither Guardian looked particularly pleased to see their charges at the moment.

"Draco. Harry."

Tarana snarled turning her head just so to show the target and the headmaster fell silent, unwilling to bring about her rage on himself, as he was more than sure she'd kill him if he gave her a really good reason.

"**Do you two realize, that both Dark and Arcana are searching the school for the two 'wayward chosen'?"** she snarled.

Harry flinched.

Draco hung his head. "Sorry, Tarana. We didn't mean to make you worry. But it was after midnight and you and Yoko weren't back yet." he whispered.

"**You both should have waited longer."** Fallen snapped.

Draco winced.

"**We warned you about going out alone during the day, and without one of us at night. You knew better. Not to mention that both of you are mentally linked to one of us. Putting on that cloak cut us off, Draco." **The wolf Guardian growled.

Harry and Draco remained silent as Fallen walked past them to the mirror.

"**I'll make you a deal Albus. You may explain the Mirror to them, in exchange for two months of detention with a teacher of my choice, subject to change as I see fit."** Tarana said, both boys looked up, shocked.

Tarana's blue eyes narrowed unhappily on the two.

"If that's what you wish." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in slight amusement.

Harry flinched.

Draco's mask had returned, indifferent.

---

When the four arrived at the Tower about half an hour later; Blaise, Yoko, and Ron were all spread around the common room, all but Yoko had fallen asleep where they sat.

Yoko woke them, as he could see that Fallen and Tarana were both in pretty foul moods at the moment and sent them to bed, fully intending on worming the story out of his friends.

Tarana reminded Harry and Draco that their detentions would begin right after school returned.

Neither Draco nor Harry ever intended on seeing the Mirror of Erised again.

Cerberus- ::smirks:: I couldn't resist getting Harry and Draco into a bit of trouble with their Guardians. The two of them will slowly work their way up to being Fred and George Weasley detention-wise.

**Chesa** means 'special light', among other things in the Guardian tongue, I doubt I'll use it often, but I think it's kinda cute. Harry has a nickname that he doesn't understand. ::Grins::


	13. Finding Flamel

This Chapter was Revised 8/26/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Thirteen: Finding Flamel**_

Draco woke with a start.

Whimpering, although quiet, came from somewhere in the room. He looked over at Fallen, who was staring intently at Harry's bed.

The whimpers trailed off to a soft gasp.

---

Harry woke with a start.

The dream, his memory from the night he and Draco snuck out, kept replaying in his mind.

Soft footsteps told of Draco's arrival, just like all the other times.

"You alright, Harry?" he asked quietly.

Harry nodded stiffly.

"Same dream?" Draco asked, handing Harry his glasses and sitting on the edge. Tarana was curled up at the end of the bed, watching them both silently.

Only Draco, Harry, and the three Guardians knew of the nightmare that continued to plague the Boy-Who-Lived.

The others slept too soundly to hear the whimpers he gave in his sleep.

Draco worried for his friend. He knew that Harry would go back to sleep and have the same dream.

Like a never ending cycle.

Tarana kept her word, term had begun weeks ago, and every day they had detention with a different teacher, some weren't even ones that they had classes with.

Hermione had them back to looking through books in their spare time, which Harry had even less of than the others, as Quidditch started up again.

With a soft sigh, Draco stood and shared a worried look with Tarana.

There was nothing she could do, he had already asked. She was loathe to give him any type of potion, as there was the risk he become addicted to it fairly quickly. Shaking her head, she nudged him and sent him back to bed.

---

Draco sat doing his Transfiguration homework, while watching the Weasley twins pretend to fall off their brooms.

Until Wood got pissed, anyway.

"Will you stop messing around?!" he shouted. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!"

George really fell of his broom this time.

"Snape's refereeing?" he sputtered through a mouthful of mud that had Draco shuddering in revulsion and snickering at the sight he made. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin."

Draco caught Harry's gaze and was surprised at the relief he found there.

'What's he relieved for?' he asked Fallen curiously.

Fallen looked up from surveying the pitch with his eyes. **"Snape's refereeing. He believes you doesn't he, most likely feels safer."** he answered.

Draco shrugged going back to his homework.

---

After practice, Draco, Fallen, Tarana, and Harry walked up ahead of the team.

"What's up, Harry?" Draco asked.

Harry glanced at him. "Curious. I mean Ron and Hermione are sure that it's Snape, but you, Blaise, and I know differently. So, if it wasn't Snape, who was cursing my broom in the last match?"

Draco was silent for a minute. "Well, it had to be a teacher, as no student has the power needed to cast a curse, not one of that level."

Fallen glanced covertly at Tarana.

"Well, McGonagall and Snape are out. She wouldn't attack her only chance at beating Severus. And he's accounted for. That leaves such a large group."

Harry nodded in agreement. He sighed. "We need to go. We've got detention with Flitwick in five minutes." he looked at Tarana.

She shrugged. **"You brought it upon yourself. You should've done as we asked. It wouldn't kill you."** she growled.

"We're going, we're going." Draco muttered.

He and Harry sprinted towards Flitwick's classroom.

Fallen and Tarana followed at a slower pace.

"**They're getting closer to the truth, Tarana."** Fallen muttered.

Tarana nodded. **"I know."**

"**Why couldn't we just tell them?"**

Tarana sighed. **"Because. You know as well as I do that they need to learn to figure things out. Those four boys are special. Even to us…more so to us."**

Fallen nodded in understanding.

'_**So, we nudge them in that direction. Allowing them to come to their own conclusions. And we help when we're needed.'**_ she continued silently, watching as the boys went into Flitwick's office.

---

The next night before their detention, Harry told the others about Snape refereeing the next match.

As predicted, Ron and Hermione jumped about him being after Harry.

"Don't play." Hermione said.

"Say you're ill." Ron jumped in.

"Pretend to break your leg." Hermione suggested.

"Really break you leg."

Draco sighed, while Blaise snickered.

At that moment, Neville toppled into the common room, Yoko's eyes widened, while Draco hurriedly removed the Leg-Locker Curse.

Yoko waited until Blaise helped him to his feet and led him to the group before curling up on the shaking boys lap, purring softly in comfort.

"**What happened, Neville?"** Fallen asked.

Neville shivered. "Malfoy I met her outside the library. She said she'd been looking for someone to practice that on."

"Go to Professor McGonagall." Hermione urged and Tarana scoffed.

"**Contrary to whatever foolish belief you've got, Granger, the teachers can't save everyone."** she said.

Hermione flushed. "But she can't just get away with it!"

Yoko smirked in a way that made him seem more human than fox. **"Don't worry about that. The whore'll get what's coming to her soon and from an unlikely person."**

Harry stood up, digging through his bag and pulled out his last Chocolate Frog, handing it to Neville as the Gryffindor began to belittle himself and looked on the verge of tears. "You're worth twelve of Katelyn, Neville." Harry said.

"You're a Gryffindor, and don't let anyone tell you any different." Draco added.

Tarana blinked. **"That reminds me."** she looked at Fallen who let out the mental equivalent of a whistle and Yoko's eyes all but melted red lazily, the window creaking open.

A beautiful peregrine falcon flew into the room, circling it once before landing on the table between the group.

"**It belongs to you now, Neville. A late Christmas gift from the Guardians for being such a great sport."** Fallen said as he stretched in a lazy manner.

Neville ran his fingers down the falcon's wing and smiled. "Thanks. I think I'll go to bed now. D'you want the card, you collect them don't you, Harry?"

As Neville walked away, Harry looked at the card in his hand.

_Dumbledore again…he was the first one I ever-_ Harry gasped.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

Harry looked up at him. "I found him!" he whispered. "I knew I'd read it somewhere. I found Nicolas Flamel."

Hermione's eyes lit up.

"Listen to this: 'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for his discovery of the twelve uses of Dragon blood, _and his work on alchemy with his partner Nicolas Flamel_!"

Yoko watched through half veiled eyes, as his last piece of the overall plan fell into place.

"Stay there." Hermione called, running up the stairs. She returned with a large book, the same one that Yoko had liberated from the library. "I found this on my bed when I got back." she said. "I thought someone had forgotten to return it and decided it would be good for light reading before I did."

The book began moving, pages flipping on their own.

The book stopped at a particular page.

Hermione looked at it and grinned.

"Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone!"

Draco and Blaise sat up straight and stared at her, Hermione flushed in response.

Harry and Ron both just looked lost.

Tarana sighed in a manner that told them they should know this by now. **"The Stone has the ability to turn any metal into gold and produces the Elixer of Life."** she told them.

"A stone that stops you from dying _and_ makes gold. No wonder Snape's after it! _Anyone_ would want it." Ron exclaimed.

"It also shows why we couldn't find Flamel in that _Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry_." Draco added, ignoring the twinge of anger at Ron's accusation, it wasn't Ron's fault his family was all Slytherin hating spawn. "This book says he's 665. That's not exactly recent."

---

The next morning in DADA, while copying ways of treating werewolf bites, Harry, Ron, and Draco were still discussing what they'd do with a Sorcerer's Stone if they had one.

It wasn't until Ron said that he'd buy his own Quidditch team that Harry remembered about Snape and the upcoming match.

Draco looked at him over the lunch table. "You're going to play aren't you." he said.

Harry nodded.

Hermione looked ready to protest. "If I don't play, all the Slytherins will think I'm too scared to face Snape. Besides, if I don't there's no replacement Seeker."

Blaise smirked at the partially manufactured story. "And it'll wipe their faces if we win." he added, nodding to Harry's grin.

"Just as long as we're not wiping Harry off the field." Ron mumbled.

Harry laughed lightly. "Have a little faith, Ron."

---

As the match drew nearer, however, Blaise noticed Harry getting more nervous, but didn't push the subject. The rest of the team wasn't to calm either. The idea of overtaking Slytherin in the house championship was wonderful, no one had done it for seven years.

But would they be able to with Snape as a referee?

---

Draco, Blaise, Ron, and Hermione sat by Neville in the stands, who couldn't understand why Ron and Hermione looked so grim and had brought their wands.

Blaise assured him that they were just overly paranoid.

Harry didn't know that Ron and Hermione had been practicing the Leg-Locker Curse. They'd gotten the idea from Katelyn, when she used it on Neville, and were ready to use it on Snape if he showed any signs of wanting to hurt Harry.

Draco and Blaise rolled their eyes at the two.

Fallen had already pointed out that Dumbledore was, oddly, attending the match, there was no way anyone would try anything.

---

As the teams marched onto the field, Harry noticed that Snape's eyes lingered on him, before glaring at the teams once more.

_Wonder what that was about…._

Ron noticed it too. "I've never seen Snape look so mean." he said. "Look, they're off-Ouch!"

Draco glanced back and groaned quietly.

Katelyn had poked Ron in the back of the head. "Oh, so sorry, Weasley. I didn't see you there." she grinned broadly at Crabbe and Goyle. "Wonder how long Potter's going to stay on his broom this time? Anyone wanna bet? What about you Weasley?"

Draco groaned again, only this time, it was because George had just hit a bludger at Snape and Hufflepuff was awarded a penalty.

_Come on guys. Don't push you're luck._ Blaise thought to himself.

He, Ron, and Draco occasionally glanced at Harry while watching the game, but Hermione was outright staring at him.

Blaise heard Yoko growl softly beneath his seat when Katelyn opened her mouth again.

"You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team?" she asked in a rather loud voice, watching with a smirk as her Head of House awarded Hufflepuff another penalty for apparently no reason what-so-ever. "Its people they feel sorry for. See, there's Potter, who's got no parents, then there's the Weasleys, who've got no money-you should be on the team, Longbottom, you've got no brains."

Neville went bright red and turned to glare at her. "I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy."

"You tell 'em Neville." Blaise said with a smile, Ron nodding his agreement but not daring to take his eyes off the game.

Katelyn, Crabbe, and Goyle laughed loudly. "Longbottom, if brains were gold, you'd be poorer than Weasley."

"**Katelyn, one more word and I'll tear off your fingers and feed them one by one to your steroid overdosing bodyguards."** Yoko snapped, attention on the game.

Katelyn ignored him, and as Hermione turned to glare at her, Katelyn opened her mouth to say something.

"Harry!" Draco's shout had drawn _all_ attention back to the game, thus Yoko never got the chance to put his threat into effect.

Harry had gone into an amazing dive, which drew gasps and cheers from the crowd.

Hermione stood, her crossed fingers in her mouth.

Blaise and Draco stood as well, watching the Seeker speed towards the ground like a bullet.

Katelyn smirked. "Look Weasley, Potter's obviously spotted some money on the ground."

Draco reached over and grabbed Ron's robes, holding him in place. "So you admit that he's a kick ass seeker, Kate, after all, even a Galleon is smaller than the Snitch." he bit back at her.

Katelyn growled.

---

Harry vaguely wondered whether or not he should warn Snape that he was approaching, but decided against it, he didn't have the time.

He brushed past him, missing the Professor by inches, pulling out of the dive with Snitch in hand.

Landing on the ground, Harry quickly approached Snape, who glared at him, white faced and tight lipped.

Harry looked the Potions Master in the eye, aware of Tarana, Fallen, and the Gryffindors pouring into the field. "I'm sorry, Professor, I didn't have time to warn you."

Snape blinked, watching Harry walk back to his team. A flash of bluish-silver caught his eye and he focused on it, spotting Draco, smirking and eyes dancing in amusement. The blond winked, before turning to congratulate Harry, commenting on the spectacular dive. He scoffed and went inside, his mind in still in shock.

_I need bourbon…._

---

Harry and Draco left the locker room later, meeting Blaise for their after-game flying.

Ron would have been there too had he done his homework as Hermione had advised.

They circled low in the stands, so as no one would be able to see them unless they were looking for them.

Harry dodged the harmless curse that Blaise sent at him.

Draco hovered above them both, watching as they screwed around. His eyes narrowed.

"Harry!" he called.

Harry and Blaise halted their antics and came up to hover on either side of him.

"Can you see who that is?" he nodded to the figure that was sneaking from the castle towards the forbidden forest.

Harry shook his head. "No, the hood's too low." he said, watching the figure closely.

Blaise's lip curled. "Well he obviously doesn't want to be seen."

Draco nodded. "True. But he has been. So do we follow or ignore him?" Draco asked.

Harry shook his head. "We could follow him…but that's the Forbidden Forest."

Blaise watched Draco grin. "Follow it is than." the blonde said.

Blaise chuckled. "Guess so."

The three flew silently over the school.

Draco's eyes narrowed. "That's Severus." he stated, recognizing his godfather's prowling walk. They slid silently into the forest and quietly, with practiced precision, dodged trees and branches.

---

Below the three of them, Snape approached the other figure, Quirrell.

The Potions Master was aware of Yoko in the deeper recesses of the forest, watching and waiting.

"I d-don't why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus…"

Snape smiled cruelly. "Oh, I thought we'd keep this private," he said, icily. "Students aren't supposed to know about the Sorcerer's Stone, after all."

Draco, Blaise, and Harry exchanged worried looks.

"Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?" Snape snarled.

"B-b-but Severus, I-"

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell." Snape sneered, taking a step towards the stuttering man.

Yoko watched as the three students pulled away from the two bickering adults. His ears pricked and he heard the soft warning snarl from farther outside the forest. The vines rose in answer, slithering along the forest floor to twist around Snape's ankle loosely.

The Potions Master pulled it free and turned to Quirrell.

"Very well, we'll have another chat soon." he spun on his heel and walked from the forest.

Quirrell stood quite still.

Yoko fled before one or both of the two dark guardians could find him.

---

Harry landed by the broom shed, Draco and Blaise on either side of him.

"That narrows our list of suspected teachers to one." Blaise panted.

Draco nodded. "Do we tell Ron and Hermione?"

Harry thought for a moment. "If we do, we already know they'll make Quirrell out to be the victim." he answered.

Blaise leaned casually against the shed wall, handing his borrowed broom over to Draco to place in the shed. "I say we keep it a secret. And if we're wrong, just in case Draco, don't look at me like that, than the Stone is only safe as long as Quirrell can stand up to Snape."

Harry nodded. "If Snape is after the Stone, Draco, it'll be gone by next Tuesday." he said.

Draco leaned his head against the wall. "Wonderful." he muttered.


	14. Hagrid's Dragon

This Chapter was Revised 8/27/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Fourteen: Hagrid's Dragon**_

Quirrell, although he got thinner and paler, didn't crack.

Blaise and Harry agreed when Draco muttered that either he was braver than they gave him credit for, or they were right and Snape wasn't after the Stone.

Hermione however, had more on her mind than just the Sorcerer's Stone.

Tarana and Yoko snickered as she dragged the boys to the library to study for their exams. It was Fallen, of all of creatures, that took pity on the boys.

"**Granger. Those exams are ages away."**

She turned on the wolf guardian.

"Ten weeks! That's not ages."

Fallen narrowed his eyes and advanced on her. **"I advise you to watch your tongue, **_**Miss**_**. Granger. I won't hesitate to gut you."** he flexed his claws Hermione _eep_ed and fell silent.

While Fallen had gotten Hermione to lay off for a while, there was nothing he could do to get the teachers to lay off. They piled on so much homework that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much as fun as the Christmas ones.

Harry, who was studying for Herbology, looked up when Ron's chair fell from under him. He glanced off to the side to see Katelyn, Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy snickering.

Beside him, a whispered spell had the three scuttling along the tables as small animals. Harry smirked at Blaise.

Blaise mock bowed and snickered as Goyle, now a turtle, fell off the table and landed on his back.

"Nice piece of Transfiguration, Blaise." Hagrid said, walking out of the stacks and into view.

"Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

"Jus' lookin'"he said. Tarana's eyes narrowed.

Hagrid looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

Blaise chuckled. "Oh, we found out who he is ages ago." he said.

"And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerer's St-" Ron said.

Blaise and Draco shushed him.

"Don't say that out loud!" Hermione hissed.

"There're a few things we want to know though Hagrid." Blaise said, looking at the giant over steepled fingers.

"Listen-come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbtin' about it in here, students aren't supposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh-" "See you later than." Harry said, watching as Hagrid left.

"**Any of you see what was behind his back?"** Fallen asked.

Tarana stood and went to the section Hagrid had come from. A minute later, she came back with a pile of books levitating before her.

Dropping them on the table and scattering papers to the floor, Draco's eyes went incredibly wide. "Dragons!" he hissed.

Tarana nodded. **"Hagrid was looking up information on dragons."**

"_Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland_;_ From Egg to Inferno_;_ A Dragon Keeper's Guide_." Ron whispered, flipping through the titles.

"**And Hagrid told you he'd always wanted a dragon, remember Harry."**

Harry nodded. "I remember."

"But that's against our laws." Blaise said. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that."

Fallen nodded. **"Its hard to stop muggles from noticing wizards if you keep dragons in the back garden." **

"**You can't tame them, its dangerous. I'm sure that Ron's seen some of the burns his brother gets from the wild ones."** Tarana said.

"But there aren't wild ones in Britain, are there?" Hermione said worriedly.

Draco looked over the book at her. "Of course there are. Common Welsh Green and Heridean Blacks. The Ministry has quite a job keeping this from muggles. Our kind have been putting spells on muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."

"**So what on earth's Hagrid up to?"** Yoko asked.

---

When they knocked on the door to Hagrid's hut a couple hours later, they weren't totally surprised to see the curtains all drawn.

Tarana exchanged a look with Fallen.

'_**This won't end well. I didn't foresee this.'**_ Fallen muttered.

Tarana shook her head, showing she hadn't either. _**'Perhaps it will help us in the long run.'**_ she said.

Fallen shrugged. _**'I may be able to work it in, but I can't be completely sure.'**_

'_**Attempt it.'**_ Tarana ordered, before she leapt onto the roof of Hagrid's hut.

Fallen and Yoko followed the humans into the hut.

---

Hagrid told them that, other than himself, Sprout, Flitwick, McGonagall, Quirrell, Dumbledore, and Snape all did something to protect the Stone.

Blaise, Draco, and Harry glanced at the two guardians, silently asking if the Stone would remain safe.

Fallen shook his head.

Yoko shrugged. Ron and Hermione looked horrified, although they were pretty sure for a different reason.

"Yer not still on abou' that are yeh? Look, Snape helped _protect_ the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

Yoko slipped out the door.

"**Tarana."** Yoko called out.

The panther's tail stopped flicking. **"What is it, Yoko?"**

Yoko glanced at the door. **"I don't trust Weasley and Granger."** he said.

Tarana stood, looking down at her friend. **"Why?"**

Yoko sighed, scaling the wall to stand with Tarana. **"They're too influential. Which is what Quirrell is probably after."**

Tarana nodded. **"I agree. Most of the information that we give the boys is likely to be passed onto Dumbledore by one or both of them. Which isn't something that I want done."** she muttered.

Yoko shook his head. **"Not to mention that Weasley's sin of choice is jealousy."**

Tarana looked at him, partially amused.

Below them, Fallen mentally cried out in surprise.

'_**What's wrong?'**_

'_**The fool has a Norwegian Ridgeback!'**_ Tarana glanced at Yoko, who looked just as confused.

'_**What's your problem?'**_ Tarana asked.

There was silence, so both jumped down to enter the hut.

---

Inside, Ron was kneeling beside the fire and a huge black egg.

Draco looked at them, wryly. "He _won_ it."

Harry turned worried eyes to Hagrid. "Does he realize that he lives in a wooden house?"

Blaise shook his head worriedly as Hagrid stoked the fire, he was oblivious as they left.

---

Tarana turned to Fallen. **"So what had you so surprised?"** she asked him.

"**Norwegian Ridgebacks are not only rare, but will grow quickly. With poison fangs and claws the size of butcher knives, they're one of the top 20 most deadly dragons. A teenage Ridgeback is as big as Hagrid's house, a full grown one anywhere from the size of to twice as tall as the entirety of Gryffindor Tower."** Fallen answered.

Yoko's eyes widened and he turned to look back at Hagrid's hut.

"He's going to die." Blaise and Ron summed up.

Harry thought of something else. "What could happen to Hagrid if they find out he's got an illegal dragon in his house?"

Draco and Ron groaned when a familiar look came to Hermione's eyes.

"Harry!" Blaise moaned.

Harry only smiled.

---

Draco glared at Hermione.

Fallen had relented and now they were studying harder than ever. "Wonder what its like to have a peaceful life." Ron sighed.

Harry only shrugged, muttering "I wouldn't know.", pointedly under his breath.

---

Early the next morning, Hedwig brought them a note from Hagrid with only two words on it. _It's hatching._

Tarana and Fallen were out the door quickly, most likely to prevent Hagrid from doing something stupid. Yoko sighed. _This is going to be a long day._

Ron, Blaise, Draco, and Harry wanted to go down, skipping Herbology, but Yoko and Hermione were both dead set against it.

"Come on, guys, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching."

"We've got lessons." was all Hermione was able to get out before Yoko cut her off from Blaise's shoulder.

"**Can I help you Ms. Malfoy?"**

Katelyn had stopped only a few feet away and had stopped dead.

Draco glared at his cousin.

The same thing was running through all their minds. _How much had she heard?_

Yoko decided quite quickly that he didn't like the look on her face.

---

Tarana's eyes were black as night, flames swirled around the hut, not touching the egg that sat on the table or the very flammable wooden walls.

Fallen had chased Hagrid from the hut so she had no worries about accidentally burning him.

Howling caught her attention. She lowered the temperature, simultaneously unblocking her mind from Fallen, Yoko, and Harry.

They all hissed at the heat that hit their minds, most not even in the vacinity of the fire-sauna that was once Hagrid's hut.

'_**Yes?'**_ her mental voice was strained.

'_**How many cracks?'**_ Fallen asked.

'_**Quite a few. Be more specific.'**_ she told him, eyeing the egg that was sitting unaware on the table. Her attention was split further as the flames fought to strip from her control and burn the hut to the ground.

'_**More or less than ten?'**_

'_**More.'**_ she answered immediately.

'_**Lower the heat further.'**_ Tarana did as she was commanded, watching as the visible waves of heat began to fade. _**'Seven hundred and fifty degrees.'**_ she reported.

'_**That safe?'**_ he asked. _**'For you and Yoko sure. Tentative possibly for Fang too.'**_

Fallen was by her side a few seconds later, watching the flames dancing around the egg, still not touching.

Tarana sighed quietly, breathing through her mouth as she attempted to remain conscious. The long term use of her elemental ability was taxing her, and her body, which had accustomed itself to the extremely high degrees of heat, was racked with shudders as the temperature in the hut continued to drop under her rapidly failing, but still iron clad control.

Fallen lay down, hoping to provide at least a bit of lost heat for her.

'_**Fifty five degrees.'**_ she said wearily.

Fallen assumed it would be safe for the others to enter and told Yoko so, just as the bell rang. Tarana's eyes returned to blue, and the flames disappeared with a crack, leaving just the heat behind. Her eyes flared a new with determination to remain conscious.

They slipped closed as Hagrid led Harry, Ron, Blaise, Draco, Hermione and Yoko into his hut.

Harry knelt by Tarana's other side, looking up at the egg on the table. An odd clicking noise was coming from it.

Draco stood by Fallen's side and Yoko curled up just under Tarana's throat, keeping her head at least slightly elevated while she struggled for continued consciousness.

The others drew up their chairs, keeping a bit away at Fallen's command, but still close enough that they could see each and every crack as they split wider and wider from within.

At once, there was an even sharper scraping noise and the egg split open.

Fallen eyed the dragon. It was indeed a Norwegian Ridgeback. Its jet-black body was skinny, its wings easily dwarfing its body. Stubs where horns would later be and its large flame-like orange eyes, significant to the species alone, were hazed and attempting to adjust to the new, light filled world outside of its egg.

It sneezed and a couple of sparks flew from its nose.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head.

"**Don't touch it."** Fallen snarled, watching the dragon snap at the giant's fingers.

Hagrid blinked. "Bless him he knows his mommy."

Fallen rolled his eyes. _**'Moron.'**_ Fallen muttered to Draco, who snorted, hiding it as a cough quickly. _**'That dragon has no parent. The closest thing to that would be Tarana, and that's only because he'd recognize her as the heat provider.'**_

Draco raised an eyebrow and looked at the dragon.

Yoko's eyes and Fallen's ears suddenly flicked to the window. Yoko was on the window in a flash, almost ignorant of Tarana jerking her head as its support disappeared, growling.

"**Katelyn."** he snarled.

Harry bolted for the door and Draco looked out with emotionless eyes.

Even at a distance, it was unmistakable.

The two exchanged looks.

Katelyn had seen the Ridgeback.

---

Throughout the next week, the smile that lurked just beyond Katelyn's face made the five Gryffindors very nervous.

Two days ago, Dumbledore had requested the assistance of Fallen and Tarana. They'd agreed on the condition that Yoko stayed with the Gryffindors at _all_ times, changes made at the fox's discretion .

Yoko aside, they spent most of their time trying to get Hagrid to let the dragon, who he was now calling Norbert, free, while trading off to do their homework.

Today, Yoko was with Ron and Blaise.

"Just let him go." Blaise said. "Set him free."

"I can't." Hagrid countered. "He's too little. He'd die."

They looked at the dragon in question. In just a week, it had grown to three times in length. The entire school noticed that Hagrid hadn't been doing his game keeping duties, the five Gryffindors knew it was because of Norbert and it was only a matter of time before someone other than Katelyn found out.

Blaise suddenly turned to Ron. "Charlie." he stated.

Ron shook his head. "Are you losing it?" he asked. "I'm Ron, remember."

Blaise rolled his eyes. "No-Charlie-your brother, Charlie. You said he was studying dragons in Romania. Can't we send Norbert to him? Charlie could take care of him and then put him back in the wild."

Ron's eyes lit up. "Brilliant! How about it Hagrid?"

In the end, Hagrid agreed and Ron wrote to his brother.

---

Another week passed.

Fallen and Tarana still hadn't returned.

Wednesday night found Harry, Blaise, and Draco sitting in the common room until just after midnight.

The portrait hole opened and Ron and Hermione pulled off Harry's invisibility cloak. They'd been helping Hagrid feed Norbert, as the Norwegian Ridgeback was now eating dead rats by the crate.

Yoko slipped through the doors to lay on Blaise's lap, looking at Ron worriedly. The reason became clear soon enough.

"It bit me!" Ron said, showing his hand, which Hagrid had wrapped in a handkerchief. "I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week." he raved.

Hermione dropped onto the couch. "Probably longer, Ron. Fallen told us that he had poison fangs."

Ron brushed her off when there was a tap at the window.

Draco, who was closest to the window, stood. "Its Hedwig." Draco said, letting her in.

"She'll have Charlie's answer." Ron said, sitting beside Hermione.

Draco took the note after she settled on his shoulder and read the note aloud:

_Dear Ron,_

_How are you? Thanks for the letter-I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they can't be seen carrying an illegal dragon._

_Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while its still dark._

_Send me an answer as soon as possible._

_Love,_

_Charlie._

The group looked at each other.

"We've got the invisibility cloak." Harry said.

"**It should cover two of you and Norbert."**

The others nodded slowly.

---

There was a hitch.

By the next morning, as Hermione had predicted, Ron's hand had swollen to twice its usual size.

And by lunch, he had no choice but to go to Pomfrey.

Yoko couldn't heal a dragon bite.

The Gryffindors rushed to the hospital wing after classes ended to see Ron. As they passed, Draco locked eyes with his cousin.

Katelyn gave him a predatory smile and he discreetly flipped her off, as at the distance, there was nothing he could say without alerting a teacher. He turned gracefully and left.

Finally catching up with his friends, Draco slipped into the hospital wing halfway through one of Ron's rants.

"She kept threatening to tell what really bit me. I've told Madam Pomfrey it was a dog, but I don't think she believes me."

Harry and Hermione shook their heads.

"It'll all be over on Saturday." Blaise said.

If anything, it made Ron even more hysterical than before.

Yoko placed his front paws on the bed. **"Ron, please tell me it wasn't **_**that**_** book."** he said, looking Ron in the eye.

Ron made an odd whimpering noise and buried his head in his pillow.

Yoko swore.

"Damn." Draco muttered, just before Pomfrey came over, ordering them out.

Walking back up to Gryffindor Tower, Harry and Draco dropped back with Blaise, letting Hermione walk slightly ahead of them.

"**It's too late to change your plan now. There's no time to send Charlie another owl."** Yoko told them.

Draco glanced at Blaise when Hermione spoke. "We're going to need to rely on the cloak and Yoko's senses. I doubt Katelyn knows about the invisibility cloak."

Draco shook his head. "She doesn't. She would have gone to McGonagall about it, if only to get us in trouble more often."

Harry was silent.

---

Draco and Harry went down to tell Hagrid about Charlie's letter, while Blaise and Yoko got some 'last minute things for Norbert' and Hermione did her homework.

They exchanged glances when they found Fang outside, a bandage tightly wrapped around his tail.

Draco leaned against the wall while Harry told Hagrid, through the window, about Charlie's letter, and the giant's eyes filled with tears.

"You okay, Hagrid?" Harry asked.

Draco glanced at their friend worriedly.

"Its alright, he only got my boot-jus' playin'-he's only a baby, after all."

Draco shot away from the wall as the 'baby' slammed its tail against it.

"Baby," he groused as they walked back up to the castle. "If that thing's a baby, I'm the friggin' Queen."

Harry, who had been snickering quietly, burst. His laughter echoed through the entrance hall.

Draco glared at him. "Man, Saturday can't come fast enough." he muttered.

---

Last minute, Harry and Draco landed themselves in detention for getting into a near fight with Theodore Nott.

That made things easier, as now only Hermione and Blaise could bring Norbert to the tower.

This was the first time that either had ever used the cloak.

Yoko waited a few feet down the hall.

Draco and Harry were gone, when the two slipped out of the common room. Yoko stayed away from the patches of moonlight, knowing it would reflect off of his fur and give away that there was a student out of bed.

Hagrid had Norbert packed in a crate that Yoko and Blaise had supplied for him. "He's got lots o' rats and brandy fer his journey." Hagrid told them in a muffled voice. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."

Both Gryffindors winced when a tearing sound came from the crate.

"I think the bear was just mutilated." Blaise muttered.

Yoko snorted and smirked at him.

How they managed to get the crate back up to the castle, they'd never know. Midnight ticked nearer and they continued up to the tower.

Movement ahead stopped them.

Yoko chuckled. **"Miss. Malfoy got herself in trouble. It seems that 'Harry Potter is coming with a dragon.'"** he told them. **"She just got a detention tomorrow. Same time as Draco and Harry. You first years get into so much trouble."**

At the top of the tower, they put the crate down and threw off the cloak.

Yoko leapt onto one of the tower walls, his silver tail curling around him as he sat, basking in the moonlight.

"Malfoy's got detention. I could sing." Hermione said, doing a slight jig.

"Don't." Blaise warned, looking around.

They sat and watched Norbert thrash about in his crate while Yoko's senses were trained around them.

He let out a soft yip when four broomsticks came swooping down.

Charlie's friends were cheerful enough. They showed Blaise and Hermione the harness they'd rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them.

As they flew away, the two Gryffindors let out a sigh of relief, finally, Norbert was gone.

---

As they walked downstairs, Yoko's warning of: ** "Blaise! Hermione! Filch can see you!"** came too late.

Both froze, Filch's face loomed out of the darkness. "Well, well, well." he whispered. "We are in trouble."

At the top of the tower, Yoko looked down the stairs, the invisibility cloak lay forgotten beside him.


	15. Detention in the Forbidden Forest

This Chapter was Revised 8/27/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Fifteen: Into the Forbidden Forest**_

Filch reached, quite foolishly, for Blaise and Hermione's arms.

Yoko, much like Tarana had at the _Leaky Cauldron_, all but appeared from the darkness, fangs crushing one of his hands mercilessly.

"**Foolishness, Argus. Never touch a chosen."** he warned, fangs flashing, dripping with his spilled blood. **"Punish them as you will, but lay a hand on my charge and magic couldn't put you back together."**

Filch narrowed his eyes, which flashed angrily, either at being denied his chance to drag a student thrashing and terrified before their Head of House, or because of the wounds dripping blood, Blaise was unsure.

He spun and led them to McGonagall's study on the first floor, where they sat and waited without a word.

'_**Calm yourself, Blaise. This will turn out fine.'**_ Yoko smiled at him.

'I guess she kind of scares me. All authority figures do.' Blaise answered.

Yoko nuzzled his hand gently. _**'They're not your father, Blaise. Remember that.'**_

'I'll try.'

When McGonagall appeared, she was leading Neville.

Blaise gave a near unheard gasp.

Neville locked eyes with Blaise. "Blaise!" he burst out, moments later.

'_**Hush, Neville.'**_ Yoko commanded.

"I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up in the astronomy tower. It's 1:00 in the morning. _Explain yourselves._"

No one answered, but Yoko was staring at Neville projecting reasons to him, pleading with him to stay silent just a little longer.

"I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on." McGonagall said. "It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Katelyn Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get her out of bed and into trouble. I've already caught her. I suppose you think its funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it too." Blaise's eyes remained on Neville. "All three of you will receive detentions-yes, you too Mr. Longbottom-nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night and fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."

"_Fifty_?" Blaise heard Hermione whimper. His own mouth was closed tightly. He could feel the bile rising in his throat, as his past memories with 'authority' came to his inner eye.

"Fifty points each. Now get to bed all of you."

Outside the office, Blaise leaned heavily against the wall.

"Are you alright, Blaise?" Neville asked.

Blaise nodded shakily.

Yoko saw flashes. **"Neville! Catch him!"**

Blaise's eyes rolled back into his head and Neville struggled to keep him upright. Hermione came to help him.

Yoko's eyes bled red and he was lifted off the two. **"Let's go."** he led the way to the tower.

---

Harry and Draco were still awake, doing the homework they hadn't been able to do because of their detention with Filch. Both looked up and blinked when Hermione and Neville came through.

Yoko and Blaise followed.

"What happened?" Neville asked nervously.

Yoko looked at him for a moment. **"Blaise has a thing with authority. Probably stemming from his father."**

Draco tilted his head, listening as he returned to his Transfiguration homework.

"**He fainted."** Yoko stated.

Hermione scoffed. "I can see that."

Harry threw down his quill in frustration. "What is the hell is your problem?" he snapped at her. "You've been stupidly rude to the three of them for nearly two weeks." Hermione blinked stupidly in his direction. "God, even Katelyn has more respect than you do."

Draco snorted.

Yoko shook his head. **"Harry, enough."**

Harry glared at the silver fox. "No, because she's going to start talking like that to Tarana, who may I point out has far less patience than you do, and I'm not going to stop her when she sinks her fangs into Hermione's throat." Yoko's eyes seem to glow and Harry turned back to Hermione. "Keep it up, and if Tarana doesn't kill you, I will." he slammed his Charms book closed and went upstairs.

Draco wiped his face of all expression when Hermione turned pleading eyes on him. "No idea what you want from me, but I can't help you save that friendship that you want so badly." he said coldly.

He closed the book in front of him and smirked at Neville. "Hey Longbottom." Neville flinched.

"Yes, Draco?"

"Think you can help me with that essay for Sprout?" Neville, who seemed relieved that he wasn't on the receiving end of Draco's glare, nodded. "Thanks."

---

Tarana and Fallen arrived halfway through the Ravenclaw/Gryffindor Charms class not two days later.

Draco and Harry seemed to relax a bit, but Hermione, Ron noticed, tensed.

Blaise and Hermione had fallen from favor, Harry, who had stuck up for Blaise when a number of Ravenclaws began to torment him, soon followed.

The glares the group got when Flitwick left the room to talk to Vector about something, were cut short when the two guardians arrived with a small bang, the door hitting the wall.

Tarana looked around the room.

Ravenclaws, who had at one point sat together with Gryffindors, mingling, now sat as far from the other house as possible.

Fallen 'appeared' between the two houses while Tarana made her way slowly towards the teacher's desk, using it to vault to the students cupboard.

Neither said a word.

Yoko watched warily. The thoughts of the students were insulting to both Chosen, as they had yet to break ties with Blaise or Hermione as the rest of Gryffindor house had.

Tarana and Fallen had every right to be upset. However, when the two did nothing, he got worried, attempting to talk with the other two guardians.

Fallen responded with a brush of reassurance, but Tarana's walls were high.

Impenetrable.

He wasn't getting into her mind.

---

Draco nudged Harry gently. "Harry."

The Boy-Who-Lived looked up at his friend with sleepy eyes. "Wha-"

Draco smirked. "Class is over."

Harry looked around. Binns was gone. "Come on."

Harry stood, yawning. "Where're Tarana and Fallen?"

Draco chuckled as the two left class. "Fallen is waiting for us at the top of the stairs, as for Tarana…Yoko told me not to ask."

A few minutes later, Draco held out a hand to stop Harry, who looked ready to question him, but Draco lay a finger to his lips and tilted his head.

Then he heard what Draco had.

"N-no-not again, please master-" A strange voice followed Quirrell's.

One that made Harry's head spin and he slumped forward slightly, nearly bashing his head on the stone wall.

Draco noticed that the lightning scar on his friend's forehead was bright red, and looked nearly ready to bleed.

Draco grabbed Harry's arms to keep him upright, before focusing on the conversation again.

"All right-all right-" Quirrell sobbed out.

Draco paled. _Dammit_. He thought, as Harry passed out in his arms.

---

Fallen growled, stalking down the stairs. _Where the hell is that boy. Times like this he's more trouble than he's worth._ he muttered to himself.

'Fallen! Harry needs help!'

_And there's the pain._

'_**Where are you?'**_

'I have no idea.'

'_**Great help you are, Draco.'**_

'Welcome. Now, can _someone_ come and help Harry?! _Before_ Arcana finds us?' Fallen growled and shot down the hall, claws scrambling for better purchase for more speed, reaching for Tarana's mind, ready to crash through the barriers if he had to.

Their Chosen were in danger.

---

Tarana flicked her tail lazily. The Ravenclaw common room was silent around her.

"**I always wondered about this place."** she said calmly. **"About whether it was more alike to Gryffindors' or Slytherins'."** she glanced around at the large group of Ravenclaws that stood at the door. **"I noticed that you've stopped slandering my chosen now that I've returned. Are you … frightened, of me?"** she asked.

A first year whimpered behind her.

"**It appears you are."** she muttered. She yawned, tail flicking in a slow, deliberate manner, and revealed gleaming fangs.

'**Tarana. What are you doing? This is foolish.'**

'_**Not foolish, necessary.'**_ Tarana corrected.

"**You are closer to Slytherins."** Tarana said suddenly. **"You turn so quickly."** her voice took on a snarl, and a fourth year whimpered before fainting. **"Slander Harry Potter and his friends, and I can make Voldemort look like a kitten."**

'_**Tarana. Harry.'**_ Fallen's message had Tarana twisting through the Ravenclaws.

'_**Where is he?' **_

'_**Find Draco.'**_ Tarana leapt through the portrait with a snarl.

_Harry. Why can't you just stay out of trouble?_ she wondered silently.

'**Because he acts like you did.'** Alex answered.

Tarana growled. **"What was his last class and who was with him?" **

'**History of Magic and Fallen and Yoko were both with them.'**

Tarana sneered, picking up the speed to jump the stairs of the dungeon, knocking over a second year Slytherin as she landed, not bothering to stop as she headed for the corridor of Binn' classroom. She faltered along a side hallway, but continued through it, ignoring the nagging feeling.

'**Arcana.'** Alex warned.

'_**I know. He's ignoring me, so I'll return the favor.'**_ she slowed to a trot when she found Harry's scent, mingled with Draco's.

'_**Harry?'**_ she curiously asked. No answer.

"Tarana!" Draco called.

Tarana followed the voice and found Draco kneeling beside Harry.

_No blood. He didn't hit the ground._ Tarana murmured, her magic swirling, swirling, searching for injuries as to why her charge lay as he did.

Tarana felt an unfamiliar hand on her back and tensed.

Draco retracted his hand. "Sorry. But I thought you might want to know that Quirrell's giving up. He's going after the Stone." he mumbled.

Tarana stared at him for a moment.

Draco shifted uncomfortably. **"Dark isn't here. He won't make a move without him. You've got nothing to worry about short of your week of detention with Filch." **she said. Her eyes narrowed. **"What happened to you?"** she asked, gently nuzzling his leg. Draco winced, looking away from her.

"Nothing I haven't gone through before." he whispered.

Tarana's eyes widened.

'**Tarana, footstep. Possibly Severus.'** Alex said, retreating so Tarana could hear the swift approaching footsteps. Tarana let her more advanced mind brush the other's.

'_**Severus. Come.'**_ she murmured to the Potions Master.

_I'm not an animal._ she heard him mutter darkly.

She chuckled. _**'Tell me Severus, did Lucius ever use the Pain Curse on Draco?'**_ she asked, as he approached.

Draco's eyes fluttered vainly to stay open.

Snape shook his head. "Never. His pride would never allow him to lay hand or curse on his own flesh and blood…however,"

Tarana growled. _**'But Narcissa had no such honor, did she?'**_ Tarana hissed.

Snape knelt beside his godson and Harry. "No, she didn't." he confirmed, looking into Draco's eyes. "Can you contact his guardian? I'm not sure if Fallen is aware of this."

"**He is aware. He most likely felt the pain that Draco went through. However, neither Yoko nor Fallen are the Trackers of our trio, no matter what animal form they took. And Fallen has an…unhealthy taste for blood. I suggest stopping that before we return to your office."** she told him before contacting the wolf.

'_**Fallen, meet us at Snape's office.'**_

She eyed both boys and then Snape and sighed.

Her eyes flashed a deep red and her body began to shift. Bones lengthened and strengthened to accommodate her larger body mass.

Now the size of a small horse, she looked at Severus and nodded to Draco. **"I can carry Draco. He's conscious enough to hold on."** she told Snape.

"Thank you." he said, maneuvering the blonde onto her back, where he weakly clung to her fur.

A sharp howl echoed angrily along the corridors, making students that still wandered the halls jump in surprise and fear.

"**Fallen's waiting."**

Snape nodded and picked up Harry under the guardian's watchful eyes. Tarana followed the professor, hearing the muttered password and committed it to memory.

Fallen stood just in the door, moving when Tarana gently jumped into the room, Draco's grip loosened and she slunk down on her belly to lessen the damage done by his fall. Fallen was by his side a moment later, gently levitating the boy onto one of the couches before sitting at his feet.

"You are aware of Narcissa's treatment of Draco when you weren't around, Fallen?" Snape asked, as he walked in and set Harry on the deep green couch opposite Draco. Tarana heard the increase in the wolf's protective growl as she shrunk to her normal, more preferable size, shaking off the excess fur and setting fire to it.

"**I'm aware of many things, Severus. At the moment, two are most prominent and only one is important. The first and most important is that my chosen is unstable. The second is that the link between Harry and Voldemort due to the curse scar is growing."**

Tarana looked at her charge with sorrowful eyes. **"How? We've been looking for him?"**

Draco began to mumble barely loud enough for Severus to hear. "Someone started talking to Quirrell. Harry looked dizzy and his eyes were glassy. A couple seconds before Quirrell came out he fainted. He…" Draco trailed off and his eyesight went distant for a minute before coming back to them. "He cast a pain curse on me and then left, Arcana chased us around for a bit and I called for Fallen, and that's all I remember until Tarana showed up."

Fallen looked up at Draco for a second before he turned to Tarana and Severus.

"**It would seem…that our Defense teacher may not be all it's cracked up to be."** Tarana mused.

"It?" Severus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"**Well, up until now, we've assumed that he was a death eater, working to find a way to get Voldemort back to power. But now, it would seem that our dear professor is willingly possessed."** Tarana answered.

"**This being the case."** Fallen broke in. **"I trust no one outside of Severus. Even Dumbledore could be used, if he hasn't picked up on Quirrell's behavior yet."**

Severus nodded and Tarana licked her charge's cheek as he came to. Severus attempted to blend into the shadows behind him.

Harry groaned. The howling wind from the dungeons seemed to echo in his ears.

Tarana smirked at the potions professor as Harry sat up slowly. "Tarana." he winced.

"**Harry."** she responded. **"Headache?"** she asked.

Draco began to regain thought and watched his friend nod slowly.

"Drink this, Potter." Snape snapped, coming back into the firelight with a potion.

Harry downed it without thought. "Thanks." Harry murmured.

Draco and Harry both chuckled weakly at their professor's mildly surprised expression, before that too, was hidden deep behind his mask.

"I don't hate you, ya know." Harry said a couple minutes later.

Snape blinked, looking over at him. "Why should I care?" he asked.

Draco smirked into his mug of tea.

"Because Draco's been revealing your secrets to me since the first potions class." Harry answered, smirking at Draco.

Snape glared at the blond.

Draco shrugged. "He and Blaise are the only ones who believe me when I say that you didn't curse him in the Qudditch match."

Snape glanced at Tarana and Fallen, both of whom watched the scene with amusement. "That's why you…"

Harry grinned. "Thanked you? Yeah."

Snape looked like Christmas had been canceled.

'_**He looks like everything he's known is being challenged.'**_ Fallen commented, idly.

'_**He's not wrong.'**_ Tarana answered, mildly amused.

---

Snape mentally snarled.

_Get over it. He's still James' son._ he growled to himself.

"Go to your dorms. You've both got detention in a couple of hours."

Draco glanced at his godfather and sighed. "Alright, Sev. See you later." he stood and watched Tarana stare at the wall for a moment.

"Tarana?"

"**He…left…"** she muttered, looking up at Fallen, who stood just within the portrait.

"**He'll be back. We both know it."** he told her.

Tarana nodded and followed the other three, lost in memories of the past while Alex scanned the area for her.

---

The following morning, notes were delivered to Blaise, Hermione, Neville, Katelyn, Harry, and Draco. They were all the same:

_Your detentions will take place at eleven o'clock tonight._

_Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall._

_Professor McGonagall_

Harry glanced at Draco, confused. **"Wonder what happened…"** Yoko smirked behind his paws.

---

Fallen lay in the sun that day, watching Hagrid.

Draco sat beside him. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"**Hagrid knows more than he's letting on. And he's far too loyal to Dumbledore to say anything. What we know is what we've picked up from his mind."**

"You don't trust the Headmaster?" Fallen shook his head.

"**Not to the extent we make it seem."**

Draco chuckled, then turned serious. "What am I going to do about Mother, Fallen?" he asked. "You're already proving that you can't stay around us as often as before, so what happens now?"

"**We attempt the best. Your father won't kill you. He needs and respects you too much. Its your mother that I'm worried about. She's far more loyal to Voldemort than to your father."**

Draco looked away from his guardian. "I know." he whispered. "But what else can I do? Where would you have me go?"

Fallen turned for the first time to his chosen. **"Draco, if his home life wasn't so similar to yours, I would send you to the Dursleys with Harry. Yoko is already thinking about the safety measures we'll need to take when Voldemort rises. When I leave this summer, promise me that you will do little to anger Narcissa."**

Draco stared. _This is far more concern that he's shown since I was nine._ he thought, nodding. _He's worried._

---

That night, the five Gryffindors met Filch and Katelyn in the Entrance Hall.

Blaise had nearly forgotten that Katelyn had detention as well.

Filch held a lantern.

Fallen's eyes narrowed.

They were going outside.

"Follow me." Filch said, leading the group out the door. "I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh?" he said, leering at them. "Oh yes…hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me….Its just a pity they let the old punishments die out…hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days. I've got the chains still in my office, keep 'em well oiled in case they're ever needed…"

"**Filch."** Tarana snarled. **"if you ever used chains of any kind on a student, I'd tear out your eyes. That's cruel punishment."**

Fallen chuckled. **"And she'd kill you if it was Harry."**

Tarana sneered. **"Damn straight. In the most painful way I can imagine."**

They marched off across the dark grounds.

Neville stood between Blaise and Yoko, sniffling quietly.

Harry wondered idly why his and Draco's detention with Snape were moved and what they were doing outside after hours.

_Its probably something really horrible, or Filch wouldn't sound so happy._ he muttered to himself.

Draco kept half an eye on his cousin. She looked terrified of being outside after curfew. _Wonder why._

"Is that you Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started!" Harry's heart rose a bit. If they were going to be working with Hagrid, it couldn't be all that bad.

His relief, for once, must have shown on his face, because Filch said, "I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf?" Harry glared at him. "Well, think again, boy-its into the forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece."

Fallen began mocking him beside Draco and the boy snorted.

Neville let out a soft moan and Katelyn stopped dead in her tracks. "The forest?" she repeated, sounding just as worried as Draco thought she looked. "We can't go in there at night-there's all sorts of things-werewolves, I heard."

Neville clutched Blaise's sleeve tightly, and made a choked noise.

Blaise patted it comfortingly. "Not a full moon, Neville." he whispered. "Don't need to worry about werewolves tonight."

Neville relaxed a bit and Yoko eyed the two curiously, a strange light in his eyes.

"That's your problem, isn't it." Filch said, his voice cracking with glee. "Should've thought of them 'werewolves' before you got in trouble shouldn't you."

Harry felt Hermione cringe beside him and mutter something about grammer.

Hagrid came striding towards them, Fang prancing at his heels. He was carrying his large crossbow, a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder.

"Abou' time," he said. "I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. Alright kids?" he asked the Gryffindors.

"I shouldn't be too friendly with them, Hagrid." Filch said coldly. "they're here to be punished after all."

Hagrid frowned at him. "That's why yer late is it? Bin lecturin' them, eh? 'Snot your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over from here."

"I'll be back at dawn," Filch said. "for what's left of them." he said nastily.

Fallen sent him back up to the castle with a couple of quick snaps at his heels, and Yoko bared his fangs, ready to add another set of scars to go with the ones on his hand.

Katelyn now turned to Hagrid. "I'm not going into that forest." she said, slightly panicked.

"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts." Hagrid said fiercely. "Yeh've done wrong an' now yeh've got ter pay fer it."

Draco raised a brow when Katelyn turned half pleading, half angry eyes on him.

"If Father and Uncle Lucius knew what we were doing-"

"My father, Katelyn, would tell us this is how its done at Hogwarts. We do something useful or we get expelled." he smirked at the uncomfortable and worried look she had on her face.

'_**Nice.'**_ Fallen commended.

'I thought so.' Draco answered, smirking in answer to Tarana's approving grin as she passed them towards the familiar territory of the forest.

---

Hagrid led them to the very edge of the forest. Holding his lamp up, he pointed down a narrow, winding earth track that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze ruffled fur and hair.

"Look there, Fallen." Hagrid said.

Fallen followed Hagrid's finger, sniffing lightly and hissed angrily. **"Unicorn blood."**

He looked back at Hagrid before he nodded to Draco and leaped into the trees.

Harry crossed his arms and watched as Hagrid split them off at a fork in the path. Neville, Draco, and Katelyn went one way with Fang; and Harry, Blaise, and Hermione went with Hagrid in the other.

---

"Why are we doing this again?" Katelyn asked, pulling her robes free from the brush with a disgusted sneer.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Because there's a hurt Unicorn somewhere in the forest and we need to find it for detention." he answered. _For the twelfth time._ he added to himself.

"What if whatever hurt the Unicorn finds us first?" Neville asked.

"We offer them you and run." Katelyn sneered.

Draco growled. "Why not offer them _you_ instead." he sneered over his shoulder at her. Katelyn glared at her cousin as he and Fang passed out of view. She watched as Neville walked past her before smirking. _Perhaps this place offers some entertainment after all._ she thought to herself.

---

Meanwhile, Harry was following Hagrid. "Could a werewolf be killing the unicorns Hagrid?" he asked.

"Not fast enough." Hagrid answered. "Its not easy ter catch a unicorn, they're powerful magic creatures. I never knew one ter be hurt before. And of course, it needs teh be a full moon fer a werewolf be on teh hunt " Hermione sniffed.

"You alright there Hermione?" Hagrid asked quietly. "Don't worry, it can't've gone far if it's this badly hurt, an' then we'll be able ter-"

Tarana leapt over a bush, cutting him off. **"Get behind a tree, and don't move."** she commanded, before leaping towards a growing sound, Yoko was in the tree above them.

Something was slithering over dead leaves: it sounded like a cloak trailing along the ground.

"**Something's here that shouldn't be."** Tarana said, walking back to them.

"How do you know?" Hermione asked, genuinely curious."

"**That thing moves like a human."**

"And you didn't catch it?" Hagrid asked.

"**Its not my place to protect the Unicorns, Hagrid. That's your job."** she sneered calmly at him.

Suddenly, in a clearing ahead, something stepped into the moonlight.

"Centaur." Blaise breathed.

It was.

To the waist, a man, but below was a horse's gleaming chestnut body, with a long, reddish tail.

"Oh, its you Ronan." Hagrid said in relief.

Tarana slid back into the shadows. "How are yeh?" Hagrid asked. He shook the centaur's hand.

"Good evening to you, Hagrid." said Ronan. He had a deep, sorrowful voice. "Were you going to shoot me?"

There was movement behind Ronan. A second centaur walked forward, black haired and bodied and more wilder than Ronan.

"Hullo Bane." said Hagrid, taking another step forward, hoping to keep the children behind him and away from Bane's temperamental views on humans.

The three talked a bit more before Hagrid led them away. They passed a bend in the path when Hermione grabbed Hagrid's arm.

"Hagrid! Red sparks! The others are in trouble!"

"You two wait here!" Hagrid said. "and stay on the path."

Tarana slid through the shadows, pacing. Eyes glowing in the darkness as her ears twitched with every sound of the forest.

Yoko's eyes glowed as he strained to see further through the woods, listening to the whispers of the fauna around them.

Ten minutes later, a fuming Fallen silently prowled from the brush, Hagrid, Draco, Neville, and Katelyn all followed.

By the wide eyed, fearful look in Katelyn's eyes, she'd paid dearly for whatever prank she played.

"We're changing groups," a rather pale Hagrid announced. "Neville, you stay with us, Harry you go with this group."

So, Harry, Fallen, Draco, Tarana, and Katelyn set off into the heart of the forest with Fang. They walked in near silence for half an hour, with Harry and Draco whispering quietly to one another.

---

The blood seemed to be getting thicker. There were splashes on the roots of trees.

Fallen eyed it from said trees. **"It was running."** he said.

Katelyn scoffed. She went ignored.

"How can you be sure?" Draco asked.

"**Predator, Draco."**

Harry smirked slightly, before he noticed something. "Look," he said, holding out an arm to stop Katelyn and Fang, who were ready to walk past him.

Something bright white was glittering and gleaming in the moonlight. If he wasn't aware of where the fox was, Draco would've mistaken it for Yoko's fur.

The group inched closer.

Fallen swore.

It was the unicorn.

And it was dead.

Harry had never seen anything so beautifully sad. Its long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen; its mane was spread on the dark leaves.

Harry took one step forward, when the slithering sound made him, and Draco behind him, freeze.

A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered, causing Fallen, and Tarana in the shadows, to crouch down defensively.

Out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like a stalking beast.

The six were transfixed as the figure lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side, and began to drink its blood.

Katelyn came back to herself with a scream, stumbling back and bolting, knocking Draco to the ground and fumbling deeper into the forest.

Tarana made a swift calculation and swore, sending Fallen after with a sharp command.

Harry helped Draco to his feet, watching as the hooded figure looked at them.

It got to its feet and came swiftly toward Harry-he couldn't move.

He cried out in pain, his head felt as if his scar was on fire.

Draco caught Harry as his knees buckled.

Tarana lunged over the two, tackling the figure to the ground.

Snarls and shrieks came from the pair, but they were so tangled together that the blond didn't even try to draw his wand and help her.

Draco heard hooves and turned his head to stare at the centaur that arrived. White-blond hair glinted and the palomino body was covered in sweat.

"You two had better be getting back to Hagrid. The forest isn't safe at this time, Especially for the Potter boy." the centaur told them.

Opposite them, with a final shriek, the figure retreated and Tarana, crouched low, approached the centaur, protective bloodlust in her eyes, the centaur took a step back as she prowled between the two boys and himself.

Fallen returned with a growl, tackling and pinning the surprised panther to the ground, nipping the back of her neck and rumbling softly as he licked the spot.

The sound broke through the fire guardian's haze and she threw Fallen off her, standing.

Katelyn and Fang were quivering in a corner of the clearing, not looking at any of them. The two went as ignored as they were ignoring the rest of them.

Tarana eyed the palomino centaur. **"What's your name?"** she asked.

The centaur bowed low. "My name is Firenze." he answered.

Tarana nodded and turned her back on him.

"**Can you carry the girl?"** she asked coolly.

Katelyn's head shot up. "I'm not riding that thing?!"

Fallen cut her off with a sharp snarl. **"You will do as you're told or you will ****not**** make it out of this forest alive."**

Firenze nodded. "Yes, I can carry her." he said, walking to the girl.

Katelyn had a firmly disgusted sneer in place as she climbed onto Firenze's back, clearly unaware of the privilege she was being granted. Tarana and Fallen were both twice their normal sizes, their chosen on their backs, and ready to run, when they both turned to the edge of the clearing sharply, the sound of galloping getting louder before Ronan and Bane came bursting through the trees, their flanks as heaving and sweaty as Firenze's.

"Firenze!" Bane thundered. "What are you doing? You have a human on your back! Have you no shame?! Are you a common mule?!"

Firenze glared. "Do you realize who is in this forest? The Potter boy is not safe here! The sooner he and his friends leave the forest, the better."

"What have you been telling them?" growled Bane. "Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?"

Tarana watched Ronan paw the ground nervously.

"I'm sure Firenze thought he was acting for the best." he said in his gloomy voice.

Bane kicked out his back legs in anger. "For the Best?! What is that to do with us?! Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!"

Firenze suddenly reared up on his hind legs in anger, and Katelyn gave a terrified shriek and grabbed his shoulders to stay on.

Tarana reared as well, coming between the three centaurs angrily. **"These 'stray humans' are Chosen, Bane. Watch your tongue or I'll do it for you."**

Fallen stood the calmest of them all, beside the dead unicorn. **"Do you not see this unicorn, Bane. Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have your precious planets not let you in on that secret? Firenze set himself against what is in this forest, to protect his home."**

"With humans beside me if I must." Firenze spat at Bane.

Tarana and Fallen took off towards the edge of the forest, Firenze whisking around to follow with Fang on his heels.

"Why was Bane so angry, Tarana?" Harry asked, as he clung lightly to her fur to hold on.

"What was that thing you saved us from?" Draco added from his perch on Fallen's back.

They didn't answer for several moments.

"**What is unicorn blood used for, Draco?"** Fallen finally asked.

Draco blinked. "I don't know. We've only used the horn and tail hair in potions." he said.

"**That's because it's a sin beyond all others to slay a unicorn."** Fallen said. **"Only one who has nothing to lose and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you an inch from death, but at a terrible price." **

"**You've slain something pure and defenseless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."** Tarana added.

"But who would be that desperate," Harry wondered aloud. "If your going to be cursed forever, death's better isn't it?"

"**It is."** Yoko's voice answered from above them, as Blaise stepped into the clearing alone. **"unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else-something that will bring you back to full strength and power-something that will mean you can never die, correct Fallen?"**

Fallen nodded.

"Do any of you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?" Firenze asked. The chosen's eyes widened in realization. "Can you think of no one who has waited many years to return to power, who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?"

Harry felt as if someone had clenched an iron fist around his heart.

And he heard what Tarana had said earlier, when he first met her in the shack on the rock. _Some say he died. Fucking bullshit in my opinion. I doubt he had enough humanity left in him to 'die'. _

"Do you mean," he croaked finally. "that was _Vol_-"

"**Hush. The others are coming."** Yoko said, and Fallen eyed Katelyn as she scrambled off the centaur's back and began brushing down her clothes, attempting to look 'perfect' once more.

"Blaise!" Neville yelled. "Why did you run off like that! Hagrid told us to stay together!"

Blaise winced as Hermione and Hagrid followed the hysterical Gryffindor to them.

"**We found Harry and the others easily without your help children. Thank you."** Yoko sneered.

"This is where I leave you. You're safer than you realize, Lord." He said cryptically to Harry before he leapt a fallen tree and disappeared into the forest.

Harry and Draco dropped to their guardian's sides and the two shrunk to normal sizes, extra fur shaken off and destroyed before Hagrid, Hermione, and Neville had completely stopped ranting to Blaise and turned to them.

"**The unicorn is dead, Hagrid."** Fallen said, and Hagrid bowed his head in silence before thanking the wolf and they left the forest.

---

Ron had fallen asleep in the dark common room, waiting for them to return.

He shouted something about Quidditch fouls when Hermione shook him awake.

Harry, Blaise, and Draco shared a nod, and began to bring the other two up to date on what they knew. Everything that they had kept secret from them, came out now.

Tarana and the other guardians, remained quiet, only speaking when asked a question, and then giving a half answer.

"Harry, everyone says that Dumbledore's the only one that You-Know-Who was ever afraid of. With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won't touch you. Anyway, who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that's a very imprecise branch of magic."

"**Its not magic at all Granger. Because even muggles can do it."** Yoko commented sleepily.

No one commented on the fact that Ron was moodily sulking in the corner.

---

The sky had turned light before they stopped talking.

They went to bed exhausted, their throats sore.

But the night's surprises weren't over.

When Harry pulled back his sheets, he found his invisibility cloak folded neatly underneath them. There was a note pinned to it:

_Just in case._ Followed by a black and green paw print.

A cat's print.

Harry smiled and went to sleep.


	16. Mystery Revealed Final Pieces

This Chapter was Revised 8/27/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Sixteen: Mystery Revealed. The Final Pieces**_

In later years, Harry would never know how he got through his exams when he half expected Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any moment.

Yet the days crept by, and there could be no doubt that Fluffy was still alive and well behind the locked door.

It was sweltering hot, especially in the large classroom where they did their written papers.

Fallen, Tarana, and Yoko lay by the doors and windows, as far away from their charges as they were willing to get, so as not to give the three temptation to cheat. They were Guardians, and wanted their Chosen to do well.

After all, if they decided to help their chosen, the flimsy Anti-Cheating Spell on the exam quills would be no hinderance.

They had practical exams as well.

Flitwick called them up one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple dance across a desk.

McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox-points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers.

Snape made most of the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws nervous, breathing down their necks while they tried to remember how to make a Forgetfulness potion.

Tarana watched this test with amusement from atop her usual place on Snape's desk.

He had long since stopped commenting on it.

---

Harry and Draco would have been getting no sleep at all, had it not been for Yoko and Fallen.

Yoko often grew them a small plant, which they crushed into their dinner pumpkin juice to help them sleep.

When he couldn't, Fallen put them to sleep, entering their minds with the mysterious third eye that was always hidden beneath the fur on his forehead.

The two were eternally grateful for the dreamless sleep they got from both methods. Both were positive, that Tarana would have put a stop to them almost immediately, if the nightmares weren't hindering their sleep to the point where they had gone almost three and a half nights without sleep.

---

As their final exam, History of Magic, ended, neither could help cheering with the rest. Draco doing so with a bit more class than the rest, he was after all, trained to be a perfect pureblood, as he put it.

Ron happily pointed out that he was hanging out with half bloods of his own free will and Draco's 'delusion' was shattered when the blond stuck his tongue out at the red head in response.

---

As the five basked in the shade of a large tree by the lake, Harry watched an owl fly across the grounds, towards the school.

Draco watched in amusement, and mild concern, as something clicked in his friend's head.

Harry suddenly jumped to his feet, Draco and Blaise followed curiously.

"Where're you going?" Ron asked sleepily.

"I've just thought of something." said Harry.

Hermione eyed him worriedly, he had turned white.

"We've got to go and see Hagrid now." he turned and began to run across the grounds, Hermione pulled Ron to his feet and the two hurried after the three chosen.

"Why?" she panted, hurrying to keep up.

"Don't you thing it's a bit odd," said Harry, scrambling up the grassy slope. "That what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket? How many people wander around with Dragon Eggs if its against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don't you think?"

Draco's eyes lit up in understanding. "We didn't see it before, because we weren't really looking for it.

---

Behind them, Tarana smirked. _Its about time, Harry. Its about time._ she said, leaping over the stones to follow her charge, Fallen and Yoko on her heels.

'_**Its about time they figured it out.'**_ Yoko muttered. _**'After all the clues we gave them.'**_

Tarana chuckled. _**'Not done yet, boys. Fallen, you're up.'**_

Fallen leaped clean over the other two and blurred across the grounds towards Hagrid's. Jumping onto Hagrid's roof, he slinked across it, the third eye flaring to life, and he entered the gamekeeper's mind.

He heard Harry's voice and tuned back in, while keeping a hold on Hagrid's mind, forcing the truth in a way that no truth serum could ever hope to accomplish.

"What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?" Blaise asked.

"Mighta come up," Hagrid said, frowning as all the memories of that night came to the front of his mind easily. "Yeah…he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here….He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I look after…so I told him…an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon….an' then…" The memories began to get fuzzier. "I can' remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks….Let's see…yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted…but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home….So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy…."

"Did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Draco asked, keeping his voice calm in a way only purebloods can pull off.

"Well-yeah-how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluff's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep-"

Fallen abruptly pulled from Hagrid's mind and the giant looked horrified.

"I shouldn'ta told yeh that!" he blurted out. "Forget I said it! Hey-where're yeh goin'?" he called.

---

The Gryffindors didn't speak to each other as they ran back up to the castle.

Tarana and Yoko waited for Fallen to approach, a proud smirk on his lips, revealing numerous fangs. **"Very nice, Fallen."**

They arrived in time to see McGonagall walk off and Snape approach the group.

Draco smirked up at his godfather. "Sev."

Snape nodded slowly, in understanding. "You want to be more careful. Hanging around like this and people will think you're up to something. And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose any more house points." he said, looking pointedly at Quirrell as the professor passed them in the direction of the staffroom.

Harry nodded, and they went outside.

Tarana chuckled quietly. _**'This is turning out better than I realized.'**_ she murmured.

Yoko nodded and Fallen sat back, watching Snape disappear after Quirrell into the staffroom.

---

Later in the common room, Tarana watched with half veiled and proud eyes as the three chosen planned.

"You realize that we're probably going to need to go after the stone ourselves right." Draco muttered, looking at the others.

"You can't!" Hermione said. "You'll be expelled!"

Harry lost his temper once more. "SO WHAT?!" he shouted. "Don't you get it? If Quirrell gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what I was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn't matter anymore. Do you think that he'll leave you and your family alone just because Gryffindor won the house cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there, its only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm **never** going to his side. I'm going through that trapdoor with Draco tonight, and there's nothing you can say to change my mind." he said, before storming up the stairs to his dorm.

Draco chuckled. "Well, it seems I'm going whether I like it or not." he drawled.

A shoe came flying down the stairs and Draco dodged it with a laugh.

"Will we all fit under the cloak though?" Ron muttered curiously.

Hermione looked at him, horrified.

Blaise grinned at the red head. "We'll find out, if not, I'm sure we could enlarge it a bit."

Hermione scoffed. "I hope you all get caught." she said, before storming up to her own dorms.

Draco and Blaise watched her for a moment, but only Ron winced when the door slammed shut.

---

Ron, Harry, Draco, and Blaise sat in the common room after dinner.

Nobody bothered them, and Hermione was ignoring them.

None of the other Gryffindors had anything to say to them, after all.

Slowly, the room began to empty and the three guardians slid from the shadows.

"You three don't seem to care that they're breaking numerous school rules." Hermione huffed, arms crossed.

Tarana eyed her coldly. **"I do hope you get your attitude adjusted before I get back tonight, or I ****will**** tear out your throat and feed the rest of you that three-headed dog."** she stated, before turning her back on the stunned girl.

"**Go get the cloak, Harry."** Fallen stated, **"And we'll see what we can do about fitting the four of you under it."**

Hermione seemed to deflate when Harry came back down, the cloak in hand. She sighed. "I'll wait up for you guys. Please, be careful." she said, as Fallen got to work on enlarging the invisibility cloak to fit the four eleven year olds.

Harry nodded.

"What are you doing?" a voice asked from the corner of the room.

Neville appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as if he'd been making another bid for freedom.

"Nothing, Neville, nothing." Harry said quickly.

Neville stared at their guilty faces. "You're going out again." he said.

Hermione winced.

"You can't go out," Neville pleaded. "You'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble."

"You don't understand, Neville. This is important."

But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate. "I won't let you do it." he said, moving to stand in front of the portrait hole. "I'll-I'll fight you!"

Blaise took a step forward to placate his friend. "Neville, when we told you to stand up to people, we didn't mean us. You don't understand how important this is to us."

Neville glared at him, but suddenly hissed in pain.

Yoko's eyes were glowing black. **"I'm really sorry, Neville. But this is far more important than you know."**

The reddish-green thorn covered plant uncurled from Neville's ankle and he dropped like a stone.

"**In about five minutes, he'll wake up. Explain everything to him."** Yoko told Hermione, wavering on the spot for a moment.

Fallen steadied him and the two leapt through the portrait hole.

Tarana and the boys followed a moment after.

---

They met no one until they reached the staircase up to the third floor.

Peeves was bobbing halfway up, loosening th ecarpet so that people would trip. "Who's there?" he said suddenly as they climbed towards him.

He narrowed wicked black eyes. "Know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie, or wee student beastie?" He rose up into the air and floated there.

Draco suddenly had an idea, he whispered something to Blaise who nodded.

"Peeves," the black haired boy said in a hoarse whisper. "the Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible."

Peeves almost fell out of the air in shock. He caught himself in time and hovered about a foot off the stairs. "So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr. Baron, sir." he said, greasily. "My mistake, my mistake-I didn't see you-of course I didn't, you're invisible-forgive old Peevsie his little joke, sir."

Draco grinned at Blaise, who continued in a perfect imitation of the Bloody Baron. "I have business here, Peeves." he said. "Stay away from this place tonight."

"I will sir, I most certainly will." said Peeves, rising up in the air again. "Hope your business goes well, Baron, I'll not bother you."

As the poltergeist left, Blaise gave the other three a self satisfied smirk.

"That was bloody brilliant, Blaise." Ron whispered with a grin.

Blaise shrugged. "Was Draco's idea."

Draco gave him a smirk. "I only got the idea from when you imitated Sev that day." Blaise snorted as he remembered the day that he had, in a moment of anger, perfectly copied Severus Snape's drawl and mocked him.

---

A few seconds later, they were outside the third floor corridor-and the door was already ajar.

"Well, there we are. Quirrell's already got past Fluffy." Ron pushed open the door.

As the door creaked, low, rumbling growls met their ears.

All three of the dog's noses sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn't see them.

"What's that at its feet?" Draco asked.

"It looks like a harp." Blaise murmured back. "Quirrell must have left it there."

"It must wake up the moment you stop playing." Harry said, lifting Hagrid's flute to his lips and blew. It wasn't really a tune, but from the first note, the beast's eyes began to droop.

Harry hardly drew a breath.

Slowly, the dog's growls ceased and it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees before it slumped to the ground, Yoko and Fallen leaping out of the way.

"Keep playing." Ron warned Harry as the other three slipped out of the cloak and toward the trapdoor.

Draco cringed in disgust as the dog's hot, smelly breath coated his clothes.

Ron pulled the trapdoor open and Tarana slid from the shadows to peer down.

"**Yoko, come here and tell me what the hell this is."** she commanded quietly.

Yoko leaped nimbly over the dog's legs and looked down.

Although he saw nothing, the smell was unmistakable. **"Devil's snare."** he said.

Blaise groaned. "Man I hate plants. No offense, Yoko." he said.

Yoko smirked over at him. **"None taken."** he answered.

"So, who wants to drop down onto a deadly plant first?" Draco asked.

Harry waved his hand to get their attention and then pointed at himself.

Draco took the flute and continued to play, while Harry made his way over and jumped.

Tarana followed, her eyes adjusting fast to the gloom as the two landed.

'**Tarana move!'** Alex said urgently.

Tarana leapt nimbly to the side, just avoiding the snake like tendrils of the Devil's Snare.

Harry wasn't so lucky. He didn't have the fast reflexes Tarana did, nor did he have an animal that relied mostly on sound and air movement to hunt, yelling in his head at that point in time.

The others, one by one followed them down.

Finally, Draco dropped down, and a sharp snarl from Fallen followed a deep growl of the three headed dog before the red wolf landed and just as Yoko and Tarana, rolled to avoid the Devil's Snare.

Yoko's eyes flared black the second the wolf touched the plant and all tendrils stopped moving.

"**Fire, Tarana."** Yoko said.

Tarana nodded, and leaped over the edge of the plant, a moment later, the boys felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the fire Tarana had lit underneath it.

A moment later, the boys, Fallen, and a weakened Yoko leapt from the plant and landed by her.

Blaise picked up his guardian, and Tarana got to her feet, shaking slightly. She was glad that no control was needed, or she would've been no stronger than Yoko.

And if the four boys planned to get as far as Quirrell, they'd need all the help they could get.

---

They walked down the passageway, which sloped downward and Harry was reminded of Gringotts for a moment.

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered.

Harry and the others listened.

"**Wings."** Fallen stated, one of his ears twitching.

They entered a large chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of what at first glance appeared to be small, jewel bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room.

On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door. Once they all reached the other side, they attempted to get the door open while the Guardians' eyes traversed the large room.

Fallen's eyes were drawn upwards to the supposed birds.

His eyes followed them, marking a few before the he spotted one where the wings weren't in his way.

His crimson eyes widened. **"Charms. These aren't birds. They're keys."** he announced.

Yoko told Blaise to put him down and he walked slowly towards the corner. **"Wielder of Wind he may be, we'll need at least one of us in fighting condition. You're going to have to do this one on your own. Use these."** Yoko sat next to three brooms.

Ron examined the lock on the door. "We're looking for a big, old fashioned one-probably silver, like the handle." he announced.

Harry, Draco, and Ron then took to the air while Blaise stayed on the ground.

Yoko curled around him and whispered,

'_**You'll get over your fears soon enough, Blaise. I promise.'**_

Blaise only nodded.

Fallen and Tarana sat by the door, waiting for the three to catch the key.

Between Draco and Harry, Ron really didn't need to be in the air. The two worked flawlessly and in seconds, the key was in Ron's hands and the red head was diving towards the door with it.

Tarana and Fallen both ducked and Ron flew over their heads and haphazardly landed behind them.

Blaise and Yoko stood and they headed on towards the next room.

Tarana, Fallen, and Yoko's eyes widened as did the other four when the room was lit.

A giant Chess board was settled in the middle of the room, huge chess pieces stood on either side.

"**Think you'll need to play, guys."** Yoko said, eyeing the pieces warily.

They all turned to stare at Ron, who blinked. "You're the best player in Gryffindor, Ron." Draco said, chuckling at the stunned look the Weasley wore.

"You'll need to lead us." Blaise added with a grin.

Harry only nodded, smiling at his friend.

Tarana and Fallen slinked around the board, watching wearily as the game progressed. Yoko sat on the head of the Knight that Ron was playing as, assisting Ron in his strategies, and changing them as the needs arose.

However, as the game came to a close, Ron came to a conclusion that Yoko could see no way out of.

"Yes…it's the only way…I've got to be taken."

"NO!" the others shouted.

"That's chess!" snapped Ron. "You've got to make some sacrifices! I take one step forward and she'll take me-that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!"

"But-"

"Do you want to stop Quirrell or not?!"

"Ron…"

"Look if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone."

There was no alternative, the Guardians looked on sadly.

"Ready?" Ron called. "Here I go-now, don't hang around once you've won." He stepped forward and the Queen pounced.

Ron closed his eyes, waiting for the blow that never came.

Opening one eye, he blinked when he saw what everyone else did.

The Queen was cracking.

Water streamed from the cracks and Ron covered his head as the chess piece exploded, water spraying everywhere.

Tarana and Fallen both lunged onto the board.

"**Ron! Yoko! Move!"**

Too late.

Yoko was thrown from the horse's head, batted to the side like a rag doll and colliding with one of the few remaining chess pieces on the board, and Ron was pinned beneath a snarling white Tiger with blazing black eyes.

Ron thought back to Christmas:

_**---**_

"_**You fail to understand everything about us, boys. We are immortal, but to an extent. Eventually, you will come up with an animagus form, probably on your fifteenth or sixteenth birthday. Around eighteen, if our hypothesis is correct, Blaise and hopefully Ron will follow."**_

_Ron blinked, shaking his head. "That's impossible." _

_Tarana smirked. __**"No, it's not. Arcana will protect you, even under Dark's control. However, whether or not he's the cause is completely different."**_

_Ron blinked. "Arcana?" _

"_**We did some research. Arcana was attacked and eventually taken over, after protecting Edward Timothy Weasley in 1894. Arcana is the Weasley family guardian."**_

_**---**_

Ron's eyes were wide.

Tarana tackled Arcana and the two rolled a few feet away.

The game was over, the King lay in much the same condition that the Queen was in, shattered and surrounded in a puddle of water.

Draco, Blaise, and Harry helped him to his feet.

Fallen and Yoko flashed past them to attack the white tiger.

"**Take them and go."** Tarana ordered.

"**But-"**

"**GO!"**

Yoko and Fallen turned and tackled Blaise and Harry, the two closest to them.

They sat up, shaking their heads from the impact to the chessboard, and turned back to find Draco and Ron in chains of water and pieces of the broken chess pieces.

"**Draco!"** Draco gritted his teeth.

"Go, Fallen. Keep Harry safe, at least until he gets the Stone." he snarled, the famed Malfoy mask falling into place to mask all pain that may have amused the brainwashed guardian.

Fallen growled, but turned sharply and led Blaise, Harry, and Yoko through the door at a run.

---

"**We've had Sprout's, the Snare; Flitwick's, the keys; McGonagall's, the Chess set. That leaves us with Snape's and Quirrell's."** Yoko said, mainly for a distraction.

Harry looked back, a slight chill was drifting along his bones, Blaise shivered beside him.

They reached another door and Harry pushed it open slowly, cautiously walking inside.

There was nothing more than a growl and a flash of red on black before the room was lit to reveal Fallen and Dark fighting like only wolves can in the muck of an unconscious mountain troll. Apparently, the red wolf was ready to take out all of the year's worth of frustrations out on the dark Guardian, and forgot about all the others in the room as he sought to do the most damage to his opponent.

Blaise held back for a moment before Yoko forcefully snapped at his fingers and he ran out with Harry and the silver fox, leaving Fallen to fend for himself.

Yoko whimpered only once before he stepped over the threshold and fire sprang up behind and ahead of them.

Purple behind and Black ahead.

Harry swallowed, wishing for Tarana. But she was two challenges back, fighting her mate.

Swallowing, he put up a mask that would have made Draco proud and followed Yoko and Blaise to the table. Yoko leaped onto the table and pawed a scroll and Blaise picked it up, reading aloud:

_Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind_

_Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,_

_One among us seven will let you move ahead,_

_Another will transport the drinker back instead,_

_Two among our number hold only nettle wine,_

_Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line._

_Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,_

_To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:_

_First, however slyly the poison tries to hide_

_You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;_

_Second, different are those who stand at either end,_

_But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;_

_Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,_

_Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;_

_Fourth, the second left and the second on the right_

_Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight._

Blaise let out a sigh and Yoko gave a half forced grin.

"_Brilliant_! This isn't magic-it's logic-a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck here forever."

Harry gave him a curious look. "I take it that you do this often?"

Blaise smiled wryly. "I needed something to do when my father locked me in my room for hours on end, so Yoko would sneak in some logic puzzles from the muggle and wizarding world for me to do."

Harry smiled slightly. "Alright. Then I'll shut up and let you work."

Blaise smirked and turned back to the table with the bottles on it.

Yoko also remained silent while Blaise worked.

He picked out two of the bottles and placed them before the others on the table. "Got it." he said. "This one will get you towards the stone." he nodded towards the smallest bottle. "And this one will get me back."

Yoko eyed the flames. **"I can jump the flames themselves, so I'm going with you Harry. Blaise should be fine as long as Fallen and Tarana can keep Arcana and Dark busy, I trust them both."**

"I'll see if I can find Snape. He's probably better at the Dark Arts than anyone else we know." Blaise said.

Harry nodded and picked up the potion. "Be careful, Blaise." he said, downing the potion and walking through the flames.

"You too, Harry." he whispered to the black flames as Yoko vaulted them.

He turned to the bottle and swallowed a mouthful of it, sprinting through the flames and past Fallen and Dark, both of whom were too busy fighting to notice him.


	17. Quirrell and Voldemort

This Chapter was Revised 8/27/09

**Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone**

_**Chapter Seventeen: Quirrell and Voldemort**_

Cerberus-FINAL CHAPTER!!! This is the final chapter of Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Sorcerer's Stone. On Saturday, the new story, **Harry Potter, the Guardian, and the Chamber of Secrets**, with all of its new revisions, will be up and ready for reading and reviewing. The Chapters are being read over as I update. ^^

Also, for anyone who was reading the **Shadow Wielders** forever ago, the better version is now up and the new chapters will be posted almost every, if not every, Sunday at some point.

* * *

Quirrell smiled.

His face and body were no longer twitching, he appeared as a man of his age and profession should. Calm and in control.

"I see that you're not surprised, Potter."

Harry was still wearing the mask he'd placed on his emotions. But no, he wasn't surprised that Quirrell was there.

"You tried to kill me." he stated.

Quirrell's lip quirked. "Yes, yes I did. And it would have worked if that wolf friend, Fallen, hadn't gotten there before I finished. Even Severus muttering the counter curse couldn't have saved you for long."

Yoko smirked as he cleared the flames and Harry in one leap. **"You won't leave this room, Quirrell. Especially not with that growth on the back of your head."**

Quirrell looked surprised.

Yoko smirked and gracefully dodged the ropes that spread, going after him and Harry.

Harry also dodged them.

"You let the troll in too." Harry stated coldly.

"Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls, even without Dark's help-you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off. And not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly…. Now wait quietly, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror."

Harry stopped moving, going ridged in surprise as he realized that behind Quirrell, stood the Mirror of Erised.

His pause gave Quirrell the moment to wrap the ropes around him.

Harry struggled fruitlessly to get free, glaring at the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

Yoko was busy trying to keep from joining Harry to do much at the moment.

"This mirror is the key to finding the Stone." Quirrell murmured, tapping his way around the frame. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this…but he's in London…I'll be far away by the time he gets back…."

All Harry could think of doing was buy Yoko time to do something about his current problem. "I saw you and Snape in the forest-"

"Yes," Quirrell said idly, walking around the mirror to look at the back. "He was actually on to me by that time, trying to find out how far I'd got. As I said, he suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me-as though he could, when I had Lord Voldemort on my side…."

Quirrell came back out from behind the mirror and stared hungrily into it. "I see the Stone…I'm presenting it to my master…but where is it?"

Harry struggled against the ropes binding him, but they still wouldn't give. He _had_ to keep Quirrell from giving his whole attention to either the mirror or the ropes chasing Yoko.

He tried to get Yoko's attention, a small plan coming to mind.

Yoko glanced at him for a moment, before lunging at the ropes binding Harry, sharp teeth bit down on the rope, gnawing and jerking at them. Ropes wrapped around the fox, but he wouldn't let go, and he growled at their attempts and the force being put on his jaw as he struggled to hold on just a bit longer.

Harry struggled, feeling them loosen.

"What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master!"

Yoko cried out as the ropes tore him from the ones binding Harry, twisting and thrashing as the rope sparked ominously, heart wrenching yowls nearly making Harry's ears bleed.

A voice came from… Quirrell's head?

"_Use the boy…Use the boy._"

Quirrell rounded on Harry. "Yes-Potter-come here."

He clapped his hands and Yoko fell to the ground beside Harry, burn marks covered his body.

Harry slowly moved to touch Yoko, to make sure the fox was still alive, but hands pulled him away.

'_**You must lie, Harry. Look into the mirror, and **_**lie**_**.'**_

Harry swallowed, and replaced his mask as he looked into the mirror of Erised.

Harry turned when a roar came from behind them.

A familiar one.

Quirrell forced his head around to look into the mirror.

He saw his reflection, pale but uncaring at first. But a moment later, the reflection smiled at him.

It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood red stone. It winked and put the Stone back into its pocket-and as it did so, Harry felt something heavy drop into his real pocket.

Somehow, he'd gotten the Sorcerer's Stone.

Now he realized why he had to lie.

"Well?" Quirrell asked impatiently. "What do you see?"

Harry warped his expression into one of awe. "I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore," he invented. "I-I've won the house cup for Gryffindor."

Quirrell cursed again. "Get out of the way," he said.

As Harry moved aside, he felt the Sorcerer's Stone against his leg.

He looked at the fire that surrounded the exit and then back at Yoko. He took no more than five paces towards the wounded fox, before the high voice spoke from the back of Quirrell's head.

"_He lies…He lies…._"

"Potter! Come back here! Tell me the truth, what did you see?"

The high voice spoke again. "_Let me speak to him…face-to-face…._"

"Master, you are not strong enough-" Quirrell began.

"_I have strength enough…for this…._" the voice interrupted.

Harry felt as if the Devil's Snare was rooting him to the spot again. He couldn't move a muscle, pain slowly began to blossom behind his scar once more.

Petrified, he watched as Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban.

_What the hell…_

The turban fell away.

Quirrell's head looked strangely small without it.

Then he turned on the spot.

Harry would have screamed, but he couldn't make a sound.

He could hear Yoko scrambling to his paws behind him, a territorial growl that seemed familiar as well.

But he was so detached as he stared….

Where there should have been the back of Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

"_Harry Potter…_" it whispered.

Harry tried to take a step back but his legs wouldn't move.

"_See what I have become?_" said the face. "_Mere shadow and vapor…I have form only when I can share another's body…but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds…. Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks, you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me before your _Guardian_,_" he spat the word out like venom. "_attacked him. And once I have the Elixer of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own…. Now…why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket._"

So he knew.

The feeling suddenly surged back into Harry's legs and he stumbled back.

Yoko now stood between Quirrell, the face on the back of his head, and Harry.

"_Don't be a fool,_" Voldemort snarled at the fox, before looking back at Harry. "_Better save your own life and join me…or you'll meet the same end as your parents…. They died begging me for mercy…._"

"**LIAR!"** Yoko growled. **"Lily and James Potter didn't beg to die. They begged for the life and safety of their son."** he snarled.

Voldemort didn't look phased, but instead continued to address Harry.

Quirrell was walking backward, so that Voldemort could still see him.

The evil face was now smiling demeaningly.

"_How touching…_" it hissed. "_I always value bravery…. Yes, boy, your parents were brave, just as the fox says. I killed your father first, and he put up a courageous fight…but your mother needn't have died…she was trying to protect you…. Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain._"

'_**Nothing he does to you, Harry, could ever make your parents death in vain.'**_ Yoko said, bearing his fangs and teeth at Quirrell, forcing him to a stop.

"Never." Harry hissed, springing for the flame door.

Voldemort screamed. "_SEIZE HIM!_"

Yoko lunged and sharp fangs bit deeply into the skin around his reaching hand. Quirrell flung the fox through the Mirror of Erised, where the guardian then lay unmoving, shards of glass embedded throughout his body, deep gashes bleeding profusely under him.

Harry didn't have time to reach the door, as just before he could pass through it, Quirrell's hand closed on his upper arm and pulled them both tumbling backwards.

Harry landed feet from the DADA professor, who was staring horrified at his hand, which, aside from the blood dripping from Yoko's fangs, was blistering rapidly, as if placed in a fire for extended periods of time.

"_Seize him! SEIZE HIM!!_" Voldemort screamed again, and Quirrell lunged again, knocking Harry onto his back and wrapping both hands around Harry's neck-Harry's scar flared with unimaginable pain, and he could hear Quirrell howling in agony.

"Master, I cannot hold him-my hands-my hands!" Quirrell let go, although still pinning the eleven year old with his knees, to stare at his palms. Harry could just barely see past the pain that they were raw, red, and bloody.

"_Then kill him, fool, and be done_." screeched Voldemort.

Quirrell raised his hand to perform a curse, but a new voice called out first.

"Subitus Nex!"

As Harry descended into darkness, he saw a flash of black that knocked the falling dead body of Quirrell off of him, and the blurry face of one Severus Snape kneeling beside him.

------------------

Harry groaned as he came too, something soft, but rough was running along his hand.

"**Harry."** Tarana called softly. **"Wake up Harry. Someone's here to see you."**

Harry blinked blearily and his glasses were levitated onto his face and the face of Albus Dumbledore swam into view above him, the rough something, was Tarana's tongue, which had stopped as she gazed worriedly up at the boy on the bed from her place at its side, rather than her preferred place at the foot of the mattress.

"Good afternoon, Harry." Dumbledore said.

Tarana smiled slightly. _**'You did Harry. You protected the Stone.'**_

Harry blinked twice at her before looking around.

The table beside him was buried beneath what looked to be more than half the candy shop.

"Tokens from friends, admirers, and of course," his eyes lit up over his glasses at Tarana. "Tarana."

Tarana smirked.

"Admirers?" Harry asked.

Tarana's smirk widened. **"What happened down in the dungeons, Harry, between you and that ass of a professor is a complete secret, so naturally, the entire school knows about it. Fred and George tried to send you a toilet seat, Pomfrey threw it out."**

Harry chuckled for a moment. "How long have I been in here?"

"Three days. Your friends will be most relived you have come round, they have been extremely worried."

Harry was silent for a moment or two more, before asking the question that had been bugging him. "What happened to the Stone?"

"You did extremely well, Harry. Professor Quirrell did not manage to take it from you, Professor Snape arrived together with your guardian to prevent that, although they both testify that you were doing quite well on your own."

"**Harry, the effort involved in you keeping Quirrell off the Stone nearly killed you. Snape worked for almost 15 minutes before Dumbledore arrived to help us get you and Yoko to the Infirmary. The Stone itself has been destroyed."**

Harry's eyes widened. "Yoko!"

"**Is fine. He's recovering from his elemental use and healing with Blaise, Fallen, and Draco."**

Harry's mind wrapped around this and then turned to Dumbledore. "But what about Nicolas Flamel?"

"Oh, you know about Nicolas?" Dumbledore said, sounding delighted. "You _did_ do the thing properly, didn't you? Well, Nicolas and I have had a little chat, and agreed it's all fro the best."

"Won't he and his wife die though?"

"They have enough Elixer stored to set their affairs in order and then, yes, they will die."

Tarana chuckled at the look of amazement on her charge's face, before jumping up to sit on the end of the bed. **"To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, even myself, Fallen, and Yoko, it's just like going to sleep."** she tilted her head. **"My father-in-law told me right before he died, that to the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."**

There was silence for a few moments, before Tarana addressed both the humans before her. **"You know, in my opinion, the Sorcerer's Stone isn't really as wonderful of a thing that you humans make it out to be. As much money and life as you could want are two things that most mortals choose above all else. And from personal experience with some of your kind, humans have a knack for choosing exactly those things that are worst for them."**

Harry and Dumbledore both chuckled at the panther's logic.

---

"I have a question, Tarana."

Tarana smirked. **"So ask it, Harry."** she said, amused.

Harry kicked her playfully where she lay at the edge of the bed. "Voldemort's going to try to come back again isn't he. I mean, he's not really gone is he?"

Tarana shook her head sadly. **"No, he's not gone, Harry. And yes, he probably will find another way to come back. He left Quirrell to die, this shows how very little mercy he has. As we speak I think he's likely looking for another body to possess. After all, he's not truly alive and therefore can't truly be killed."**

"Voldemort said that…he only killed my mum because she tried to stop him from killing me. But why would he want to kill me in the first place?"

Tarana looked saddened. **"I'm sorry, Harry. But while I have the answer to your question, I'm afraid that their death is still far to close for me to give it to you. When I am ready…I will tell you…but for now, let me handle it. Let me deal with your burden, just a little longer."**

Harry nodded slowly. "Why couldn't Quirrell touch me?"

"**Well, on the Wizarding level, it is because your mother died to save you. If there is one thing that bastard of a half-blood can't understand, its love. He doesn't realize that love as powerful as your parents' love for you leaves a mark all its own. One deep in your blood, in your skin. Quirrell was sharing his soul with Voldemort, and therefore couldn't have touched you as long as you truly hated him. On the Guardian's level, it is because of how deeply devoted you are to your friends and family. You drew on my power, which amplified your mother's magic and made your skin hotter than normal, that is the 'scientific' way of explaining it. In reality, it was your devotion to me, and not just mine to you, that kept that despicable creature from touching you."**

"Did Dumbledore tell you how I got the Stone out of the mirror?"

Tarana laughed. **"Yes he did. 'Only one who wanted to find the Stone-meaning to find it, but not use it-would be able to get it, otherwise they'd just see themselves making gold or drinking Elixer of Life.' And then he proceeded to steal a box of your Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. This wasn't long before you woke up, actually."**

Harry chuckled for a moment, before he was engulfed in a short hug, which caused Tarana to glare at Hermione.

Draco, Ron, and Blaise followed Hermione into the Hospital Wing, Fallen and Yoko following them in.

Fallen still bore open, but healing wounds from his fight with Dark, but looked otherwise okay, he had obviously decided against regenerative rest, rather, healing the wounds as a magical wolf would.

Yoko limped slightly, but again, looked otherwise okay.

Harry grinned at the sight of his friends.

"We were worried about you, mate." Ron said with a grin.

Draco smirked. "And of course there are the rumors going around about what happened down there. What did we miss?"

Harry shook his head, only Draco would bypass all the 'how are you feeling' crap and go straight to what he wanted to know.

Harry told them everything: Quirrell; the mirror; the Stone; and Voldemort. They were a good audience.

Draco and Blaise looked mildly ill when he told them what was under Quirrell's turban, and Hermione screamed.

"So…the Stone's gone?" Ron said when he was done. "Flamel's just going to _die_?"

"That's what I said, but what was it you said Tarana?"

"**To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."** the Panther answered, from where she was having a similar conversation with Yoko and Fallen about her battle with Arcana, and where the Tiger was hiding out now.

The group talked for a bit more before Pomfrey kicked them out, saying that curfew was in 10 minutes and they needed that time to get back up to the Tower.

---

Then next day, Pomfrey announced that he was allowed to go to the feast, there was a mildly interesting conversation with Hagrid, where he was presented with a photo album full of wizard photos.

Smiling and waving from every page were his mother and father.

In a few, Tarana was with them, she looked much more relaxed in most of the pictures, than Harry had ever seen her.

Harry couldn't speak, but Tarana allowed the tight hug that Harry gave the giant in thanks, a soft light in her eyes as she looked at the picture on the bed, Harry's mother, father, two men he didn't know, two jaguars: a white and a black, and Tarana all stood in front of Hogwarts.

An imperceptive shiver went down her spine.

_Brothers._

---

Harry and Tarana made their way to the end-of-the-year fest alone that night. Pomfrey's fussing had amused Tarana, but frustrated her charge immensely.

With a small burst of magic on Tarana's part, the doors to the Great Hall were pushed open.

Being one of the last ones there, the Great Hall was full.

Tarana sneered at the Slytherin colors of green and silver, which the Great Hall was decked out in to celebrate Slytherin's winning of the house cup for the seventh year in a row. On the wall behind the High Table, there was a huge banner of the Slytherin serpent.

When the two walked in, there was a sudden hush.

Tarana walked just a step ahead of Harry, catching Katelyn's eye with a vicious gleam that made the female Malfoy pale further.

Harry slipped into a seat between Draco and Ron, smiling weakly at Blaise and Hermione across the table. He tried to ignore the fact that people were standing up to look at him.

Tarana snarled, and those at the nearby house tables immediately looked away.

Fortunately, Dumbledore walked in before any blood could be shed from those that didn't heed the panther's warning.

The babble died away quickly.

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were…you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts…." He looked around at the students. "Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two points, Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."

There was a storm of cheering from the Slytherin table.

Draco could see his cousin banging her goblet on the table, and raised an eyebrow.

She quickly stopped, when she saw he was watching her, as banging the tableware was unMalfoy-like.

"Yes, yes well done Slytherin," said Dumbledore, and Tarana, Fallen, and Yoko gave off half vicious, half triumphant smirks. "However, recent events must be taken into account." The room went very, very still, only Tarana's flicking tail, and Fallen's calm breathing were heard. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see…where to start…. Oh yes."

"First-to Mr. Ronald Weasley…" Ron's face went an odd purple color, and Fallen snorted into his paws. "for the best-played game of chess, Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house, fifty points." Cheers came from the Gryffindors. "Second-to Mr. Blaise Zabini…for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house, fifty points." Blaise blinked rapidly, and Hermione nudged him in the side, clapping loudly.

"Third, it takes a cool head, to stare death in the eyes and show the Guardians true defiance. For this, I have been asked to award, Draco Malfoy, fifty points." Draco glanced at Tarana, who smirked.

She hadn't told anyone what Draco had done for her, she would leave that up to the boy himself.

"Fourth-" Dumbledore locked eyes with Yoko, and then trailed them to Harry. "to Mr. Harry Potter." the room was dead silent again. "for pure nerve, outstanding courage, and dead set devotion, I award Gryffindor house, sixty points."

Gryffindor erupted into cheers. Gryffindor had beaten Slytherin.

Dumbledore raised his hands for silence once more, and the houses gradually fell silent. "Finally, our Guardian, Yoko, has decided he wants to award some points of his own." Yoko stood slowly. **"In all my years, I've seen hundreds of types of courage. I know from experience that it takes a lot of courage to stand up to enemies. Especially those more powerful, and experienced then yourself. However, to stand up to your friends, to protect what you believe in, is a rarity for all of us. This said, I desire to award, ten points to Gryffindor for Neville's courage to stand up for what he wanted. What he believed in."**

Neville stared at Yoko in surprise.

The Great Hall, minus the Slytherins, erupted into cheers.

Neville was brought out of his shock by Blaise's arm around his shoulders, as the entirety of Gryffindor house cheered for him.

Tarana stood, and the Gryffindors fell silent. **"For a guardian to award points, Neville, is rare, because we are so old that little surprises us enough for us to **_**want **_**to give them. However, I believe that Yoko is right, in all of our years, rarely have we seen someone stand up against their friends. Therefore, I give a gift of my own."** The magic of Hogwarts seemed to bend, narrowing in on Tarana. Fallen and Yoko both backed away from her. **"A gift, I hope you use well. Neville, meet a guardian, not of our world, but one of your own."**

The falcon Neville received from them swooped through the Great Hall to land on Neville's shoulder.

"_Master."_ Neville's eyes widened and he looked from Tarana to the falcon.

"I can-"

Tarana's voice seemed to radiate the magic of Hogwarts and Guardian alike. **"The bond set in motion, I hope it flourishes."**

Neville shuddered as the feelings of pride poured off of the falcon on his shoulder. "Horus." he whispered, running his fingers down the falcon's head.

"That's sooo adorable." Hermione muttered to Blaise, who smirked at the smaller boy.

Neville blushed.

As soon as Tarana was back under Harry's seat, Horus the Falcon settled on the table beside Neville's plate, and picked at the food that the boy put there.

Neville still looking a bit stunned, let him.

Harry would later say that it was one of his most favorite moments at Hogwarts.

---

In all the excitement, Harry had almost forgotten that the exam results were still to come, but come they did.

To their surprise, both he and Ron passed with great marks.

Hermione of course, got the best grades of the First Years, with Blaise and Draco trailing a close second.

Even Neville passed, his great Herbology mark making up for his abysmal Potions one.

They had hoped that Goyle, who was almost as stupid as he was mean, might be thrown out, but he had passed, too.

It was a shame, but Draco told them with a smirk that they couldn't have everything in life.

---

The next morning, their wardrobes were empty, trunks were packed.

Horus found Neville's toad near one of the toilets and returned him to his 'master'.

Notes were handed out to all students warning them not to use magic over the holidays.

Tarana had snorted and turned her head when Fred told them that he always hoped they'd forget to hand them out.

---

Two hours before they were set to leave, Draco and Harry walked down to see Snape.

Harry thanked him, heartily and Draco promised to see him at some point over the summer.

Snape, was so surprised that he was practically speechless until Harry and Tarana left the dungeons, leaving his godson and Fallen in his quarters to make plans for the summer with Narcissa.

---

Hagrid took them down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the lake; they were boarding the Hogwarts Express; talking and laughing as the countryside became greener and tidier; eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans as they sped passed muggle towns.

They pulled off their wizarding wear and put on muggle clothes.

And, all too soon in Harry's opinion, they were pulling into platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station.

It took a while for them all to get off the platform, but none of them minded, they were content to talk to their new friends for as long as they could.

"You guys have to come and stay this summer," Ron said, looking at Harry and Blaise. "All of you, I'm hoping that between Fred, George, and me, we can all talk my mom into letting you come too Draco."

Draco chuckled. "I won't hold my breath. The twins say your mom's quite stubborn."

Ron shrugged. "That's mum for you."

People jostled them as they made their way back to the muggle world.

Some of them called out to Harry.

"Still famous," Blaise said, grinning.

"Not where I'm going I assure you." Harry said.

He, Draco, and Ron passed through the barrier together.

Blaise, Hermione, and Neville, who was fast becoming a regular part of the group, followed them.

Harry talked for a few moments with Molly Weasley, thanking her for the fudge and sweaters when Draco elbowed him hard in the side and gave him a pointed look.

It was then that the Dursleys made their appearance.

Draco and Tarana both eyed the Dursleys with thinly veiled disgust, although for different reasons.

Draco because they looked hideous, Tarana because of the way she knew they had, and likely would continue to, treated her charge when she was away.

Draco twirled his wand idly, smirking coldly when Dudley squeaked quietly.

'Remind me to get that story out of Harry later, Fallen.' he murmured to the wolf.

Fallen chuckled, sitting calmly, very much looking like a large red dog at his master's feet. He too was eyeing the muggles Harry lived with.

They looked horrible.

"Have a good summer Harry." Draco said, elbowing his friend. "And send Hedwig if you need anything." he sent a pointed look at Dudley and Harry smirked.

"Oh, I will." Harry said. "After all, _they_ don't know we're not allowed to do magic at home. I'm going to have fun with Dudley if it kills me."

He and Tarana followed after the fat form of Vernon, sending one finally wave towards his friends.

Despite all that had happened this year, Harry couldn't help but think that his introduction to the Wizarding World, was the best birthday present Tarana ever gave him. Because it allowed him to find and make the best friends the world could ask for.


End file.
